


Against Owl Odds

by eastflerb



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Cursed!Luz, F/F, Fluff, Fluff & Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Let's see how far I get lmao, Luz gets Eda's curse yikes, Owl Curse! Luz, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26539477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eastflerb/pseuds/eastflerb
Summary: Amity Blight has a big problem, and that problem happens to be being head over heels for Luz Noceda. Unfortunately, Luz also has her own problems--In an unfortunate magical mishap, Eda's owl curse has transferred to her instead. A newly cursed human and a painfully pining witch...this is bound to go well.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 97
Kudos: 683





	1. An Unassuming Beginning

Amity Blight had a problem. A very big problem. A problem that was currently vehemently explaining the plot of the most recent Azura book to anyone who would listen. A problem who was sitting very close to Amity, just close enough to bring her train of thought to a screeching halt.

“Honestly, I think they did a great job rounding out her character arc! It really feels natural, how Azura and Hecate talk to each other.” Luz gesticulated wildly as she talked, and when an errant hand nudged Amity’s shoulder, she almost jumped out of her skin. Luz paused in her rant to shoot Amity an apologetic glance and give her shoulder a gentle pat.

“Oops. Sorry, Amity. Got a little excited there.” Luz’s words almost went unnoticed, as Amity’s brain was about five seconds away from short-circuiting entirely.

“It’s fine.” She said, a little bit too quickly. Luz, as usual, didn’t seem to notice the fact that Amity was approximately the color of a cherry tomato (and currently possessed the cognitive faculties of one), and returned to her enthusiastic analysis of Azura and Hecate’s relationship.

Sometimes, it felt like the gods were laughing at her. Amity Blight, star student and accomplished witch, feared and respected by all of Hexside, reduced to a flustered mess by the smallest amount of attention or physical contact from the strangest girl in school, who she had somehow fallen head over heels for. Amity was just lucky most of the school hadn’t caught on, but it would only be a matter of time before her stuttered words and full-face blushes gave her away. But she supposed it didn’t really matter all that much. Given how oblivious Luz could be, the entire Boiling Isles would know before Luz noticed Amity’s feelings for her.

Lunch periods were always the worst (or the best, depending on how you looked at it). During classes, Luz was too busy diligently taking notes and hanging on the teacher’s every word to pay Amity much attention (Luz could be silly, but her determination to learn magic overrode her penchant for tomfoolery). Apart from the occasional smile and accidental brushing of arms or hands, which was already enough to make Amity’s heart flutter, Abomination class wasn’t all that different now that Luz was enrolled. Not that Amity minded—it would be a lot harder to maintain her straight As if Luz was distracting her at every turn. Lunch, however, was a completely different story. All that pent-up energy from sitting still and paying attention in class had to go somewhere, and that somewhere was made very evident the moment Luz, Amity, Gus, and Willow sat down at the table. Lunch Luz effused boundless energy and positivity, and was likely to hold hands, give surprise hugs, and talk at length in that excited, enrapturing way. That Luz was the Luz that Amity struggled to keep her cool around, and also happened to be the Luz Amity was currently dealing with.

Amity took a deep breath, deciding that it was probably a good idea to look away from Luz before she inevitably got flustered again. Unfortunately, looking away from Luz meant seeing the mischievous grin plastered across Willow’s face as she met Amity’s eyes. While the majority of Hexside hadn’t caught on to Amity’s feelings, Willow had always been astute. Of course, spending every lunch period with Luz and Amity since the ill-fated Grudgby game had definitely helped her figure out what was going on. Willow had promised Amity that she wouldn’t tell Luz, but that didn’t stop her from teasing Amity about it. Amity supposed she deserved it, but it didn’t stop it from being any less infuriating. At least Gus had no idea. Amity suspected that he couldn’t keep a secret to save his life.

Amity looked back at Luz just as she was reaching what appeared to be a particularly exciting conclusion. She couldn’t help but smile softly at the happy look on the human’s face. After the fight with Belos, Amity had been worried. Luz may have loved the Boiling Isles, but it was another thing to be trapped with no way home. After some teary nights and low-energy days, Luz seemed to have sprung back to her regular vitality. Eda and Lilith had apparently told her in no uncertain terms that they weren’t going to give up, and that they’d work tirelessly until they found her a way home. That promise combined with a few days to process everything meant that Luz had bounced back, with only occasional despondent looks or musings to indicate that anything was weighing on her. Amity thought it was admirable, the way Luz could recover from just about anything.

Amity was already mostly zoned out in her blissful musings, but something caught her eye on the human’s head, something that didn’t appear to belong. Amity cleared her throat quietly, then louder when it became evident that Luz wasn’t going to slow down anytime soon.

“Luz!” Amity said, waving a hand in front of the human’s face. Luz looked startled for a moment, then gave Amity one of those wide smiles that turned her brain to putty.

“What’s up, Amity? Sorry if I was talking for too long. I just get so excited about Hecazura! They’re so perfect for each other.” Luz almost sounded a little sheepish. Amity frowned, trying to keep herself focused and from saying something foolish like _‘I could listen to you talk all day’_.

“It’s not that. I was just…what’s going on with your hair?” Amity pointed to the three strange tufts she was talking about, hair that didn’t quite match the texture of the rest of Luz’s curls. Luz frowned and combed her hand through her hair.

“A-ha!” She brandished the tufts, which weren’t hair at all—instead, Luz held a handful of long, dark brown owl feathers. “Hooty must be shedding, or something. I must have missed these when I was getting ready for school.”

“Does Hooty even have feathers?” Gus asked thoughtfully, taking a feather from Luz’s hand and twirling it around in his fingers.

“I don’t know. He’s a house demon, whatever that means. If they’re not his, maybe they were some sort of present from King. He likes to leave me little trinkets and pebbles and stuff he finds outside. Kind of like a cat. Do you even have cats on the Boiling Isles?” And with that, Luz was off on another tangent. Amity’s attention, however, was still on the feathers. They were much too dark to be anything from Hooty, and the more she thought about it, she hadn’t seen them on Luz earlier (and Amity would know—she’d been staring at Luz pretty much all day).

After a few more moments of silent consideration, Amity decided to once again just sit back and listen to Luz talk, this time about the furry little animals that lived in her world. A few feathers probably wasn’t any cause for concern, and she’d much rather devote her (currently limited, due to the cute girl sitting very close) brainpower to other things. Other things like the adorable way Luz tripped over her words when she got excited, the way her warm brown eyes almost sparkled with frenetic energy, and the fact that Amity was 100%, incurably, and extremely head over heels for Luz the human.


	2. Sleepovers, Or: A Test of Amity Blight's Willpower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity Blight struggles to keep her feelings under control during her and Luz's weekly Azura book club sleepover.

Amity was pretty sure that sleepovers, as a concept, were designed to destroy her. After the door leading back to her world was destroyed, Luz had somehow become even more affectionate, and wanted even more time together with her friends, especially Amity. Amity usually hated physical contact, but from Luz, it was different. Every time Luz took her hand it felt like electricity was crackling through her, but in a good way, somehow. Try as she might to maintain her aloofness, Amity couldn’t help but miss the physical contact whenever Luz wasn’t around. It took all of Amity’s effort to maintain her composure every time Luz tackled her in a hug.

That was what made sleepovers so dangerous. Luz had transformed their weekly Azura book club meetings into sleepovers at the Owl House, arguing that the presence of snacks and fluffy pillows made talking about books infinitely better. With nobody else around to distract her, save for a hapless King from time to time, Luz directed all of her attention to Amity. This focus usually resulted in Amity spending most of the night cozied up next to Luz as the human gently ran her fingers through Amity’s hair. At times like those, Amity found it hard to pay attention to Luz’s ramblings, instead doing her best to just keep from dozing off. If Luz noticed, she didn’t seem to mind.

This was the situation Amity Blight found herself in at the moment. They were in Luz’s room at the Owl House, nestled together in a warm pile of pillows and blankets. The sun had long since set, and they were illuminated by the gentle glow of candlelight. Luz was reading the first Azura book aloud (she said it was always good to return to the classics), and Amity was in a state of blissful relaxation, interrupted by the occasional bout of panic. After all, she couldn’t get too relaxed. Luz was oblivious, sure, and sweet, but there was no way that she liked Amity back, not after the way Amity had treated her terribly for so long. No, it was better to just enjoy the friendship that they had, instead of wanting more. The moment Luz realized that Amity liked her, _like_ liked her, that would ruin their friendship, and Amity wasn’t ready to give up these moments, moments when she felt safe and happy. Amity sighed and closed her eyes, trying to keep her train of thought from spiraling much farther than it already had. They were friends, and thinking about anything more than that was an exercise in futility. Instead, Amity just let herself get swept up in Luz’s enthusiastic narration.

Amity had no idea how long she had been dozing, but when she opened her eyes again, the room was completely dark. Curiously, Luz was still reading aloud. Amity sat up (ignoring the disappointed and very cute sound Luz made when she did so) and looked around. It was near impossible to make out anything but fuzzy silhouettes, illuminated by the dim light of the moon.

“Luz, did the candles go out?” At Amity’s question, Luz stopped reading. Amity heard her shut the book and shift around, presumably taking stock of the room as the witch had just done.

“Oh, I suppose they did! Huh. I didn’t even notice.” Luz said in that infectiously cheery way of hers.

“Here, I’ve got it.” Amity drew a small circle in the air, and the candles reignited with gentle, purple flames. Luz hissed and slapped her hands over her eyes.

“Ah, geez! Amity, your fire is so bright!” Luz said, face crinkled up in discomfort. Amity instinctively put a hand on Luz’s shoulder, concerned.

“Sorry! I didn’t realize humans had such sensitive night vision.” Amity would have to add that to her list of strange human quirks. It was odd that this was the first time that she had noticed, but she supposed that her cognitive faculties hadn’t always been 100% present during their sleepovers.

“We don’t, it just wasn’t very dark in here.” Luz hesitantly peeked out from behind her hands before removing them from her face altogether, giving Amity a reassuring smile. “Never mind, though. It’s okay! Hey, next time we should use my light glyphs. Those won’t go out!” Luz’s enthusiasm was contagious, and Amity returned her smile with a soft one of her own. A thought tugged at the back of her mind as Luz reopened the Azura book to find where they had left off. For a moment there, it almost looked like Luz’s eyes were completely black. But when Amity looked now, Luz’s eyes were their usual warm brown. It must have been a trick of the light, she supposed. Just as she dismissed the thought, there was a loud creak as the door swung open.

“Children! Your presence is required at the dinner table so we can feast together! So say I, King of Demons and your lord and master!” King didn’t strike a particularly intimidating figure as he clutched his stuffed rabbit, and his pomposity only added to his adorableness. He scampered over to a teddy bear near the edge of the pillow pile and snatched it up, holding it aloft like a trophy. “Also, I’m taking this soldier as my prisoner.” King puffed out his chest as he spoke, before tucking the bear under his other arm. Luz giggled, and Amity couldn’t help but stifle a laugh as well.

“We’ll be right down, King! Thanks for letting us know.” The moment Luz pulled away from her to get to her feet, Amity found herself missing the contact. Once Luz was up, she turned to face Amity, holding out her hand with the sort of kind look on her face that always took Amity’s breath away. Amity sighed, taking the proffered hand. No use wanting more, she reminded herself, as her face started to heat up against her will.

Dinner at the Owl House was, like many things at the Owl House, a strange affair. Eda was always trying out some sort of strange new recipe with parts she’d picked up from the market, and Lilith’s presence was still a little bit awkward for Amity. They had never been particularly close as teacher and student, but Lilith had changed significantly from the haughty, aloof witch she had once been. It seemed that being around Eda had really loosened her up, in a manner of speaking. That much was obvious when Amity and Luz walked into the kitchen to see Lilith slumped over in a chair, eyes closed and nursing a mug emblazoned with the words “30 & Flirty”.

“Rough day?” Luz asked brightly, sliding into the chair across from her. Lilith groaned, eyes still closed, but smiled tentatively. Amity was astonished with how friendly Luz was to Lilith, considering that mere weeks ago Lilith had used the human’s life as a bargaining chip, a fact that Amity wasn’t going to soon forget. But Luz seemed to be endlessly forgiving. That shouldn’t surprise her, Amity supposed. After all, Luz had forgiven Amity.

“Yep! She’s real tuckered out from all the magic we’ve been doing, so I decided she’d earned a special adult drink in my favorite mug.” Eda’s voice almost wasn’t audible over the racket she was making at the stove. It almost looked like something was fighting to get out of one of the pots. As Amity watched, a tentacle snaked out from under the lid and started reaching for Eda’s hand. Eda quickly shoved the tentacle back into the pot and slammed the lid down, leaning on it to keep whatever was inside from making another escape attempt. Eda turned her head to give Lilith a wink, and Luz squealed.

“Eda! Your eyes!” Luz pointed excitedly at Eda’s face, almost hopping out of her chair. Looking closer, Amity could definitely see that something was different. For reasons mostly unknown to Amity (nobody had really wanted to talk about it, and Amity wasn’t about to ask), Eda and Lilith had returned from Eda’s near-petrification at the Conformatorium with one gray eye each. However, a splash of yellow seemed to have returned to Eda’s. It still didn’t quite match the other eye, but the difference was far less prominent now. When Lilith blearily blinked open her eyes, Amity noticed that some blue was returning to her odd eye as well. Eda flashed Luz a wide grin before turning back to the stove, dialing up the flames to what Amity would consider to be an unsafe amount.

“Yep! Having the two most powerful witches on the Boiling Isles working together to solve the curse is working wonders. With Lilith’s book smarts and my limitless skill, we can do anything.” Eda’s words were met with a grumble from her sister, but Lilith didn’t complain. “We’ve been slowly but steadily drawing the curse out of each other bit by bit. It’s going great. With any luck, we’ll both be totally curse-free within the next week or so.” Before Amity could ask about this ‘curse’, Eda pulled the pot off of the stove, slamming it on the table with a loud thud. “Who wants dinner? You haven’t lived until you’ve tried Boiling Isles calamari.”

Even with the slight awkwardness between Amity and Lilith, dinner at the Owl House was always exponentially more fun than any dinner Amity had ever had at her own home. While dining at home was done in cold silence, dinner at the Owl House was raucous and filled with energy. Luz went off on several seemingly unrelated tangents about school, frogs, and magic, backed up by Eda’s frequent interjection with stories of her own. King was too short to sit in a regular chair (and refused to use the high chair, as it was not befitting of a King) and thus sat himself on the table. He also refused to use cutlery, and instead scarfed down everything on his plate by shoving his snout into it. Nobody seemed to really care about his table matters, or the fact that once he was done, he attempted to steal bites of everyone else’s food. Lilith was generally quiet, and Amity got the sense that her former teacher, like her, was just taking it all in. The calamari was surprisingly good, and while Eda wouldn’t let Amity and Luz partake in any of her and Lilith’s “special adult drink”, she did send them off to bed with two mugs of hot cocoa—a truly amazing human invention.

As Luz and Amity set up their sleeping bags, or ‘sleep cocoons’, as King insisted they were called, Luz stopped for a moment, a serious expression on her face.

“Hey Amity. I just wanted to say, uh…” Luz’s words had Amity’s heart racing in her chest. Had Amity done something to give herself away? Was Luz going to ask her to leave? Not much left the human at a loss for words, but Luz was clearly struggling with what to say next.

“…Thanks.” Luz said, looking up to meet Amity eyes for a split second before averting her gaze. “For, you know, being my friend. And hanging out with me so often, and putting up with my rambling, and…well, I’ll stop now. But yeah. Thanks.” Now Amity was the one at a loss for words. This was not what she had expected. Amity fought past the sudden tightness in her throat to respond.

“Luz, where is this coming from?” Amity tried to meet Luz’s eyes again, but the human was suddenly very preoccupied with fluffing up a nearby pillow.

“Well, back in the human world, I didn’t have very many friends. Most people didn’t like me, or made fun of me, or whatever. And I know I annoyed you a lot at first, but I’m really happy that we’re friends now.” Luz said, uncharacteristically quiet. Amity couldn’t help but reach out and put her hands on Luz’s shoulders, feeling the need to comfort her. Luz looked at her with some trepidation, as if afraid of what Amity would say next.

“Luz, I know that I haven’t always been the nicest to you. But I was an idiot. Anyone would be lucky to have you as a friend. You’re kind, and brave, and I…I wish I was more like you.” Amity said, smiling and doing her best to keep from sounding _too_ lovestruck, even though she absolutely was. Luz’s eyes were shimmering with some sort of indecipherable emotion, and before Amity could react she surged forward and enveloped Amity in a tight hug. Amity froze for a moment, before gently reaching her arms around Luz to reciprocate.

“You going soft on me, Blight?” Luz asked thickly. Amity chuckled softly, using one hand to rub gentle circles on Luz’s back.

“In your dreams.” They stayed like that for a few moments, and Amity hoped that her heart (which was currently in danger of beating out of her chest) wasn’t audible to Luz’s human hearing. Luz hummed softly as Amity reached up to card her hands through Luz’s hair, and the sound was so cute that Amity had to use all her willpower to keep her brain from melting out of her ears. When they pulled away, that unknown expression on Luz’s face had mostly faded, replaced with her usual bright grin.

“Whew! I think I’m about ready to hit the hay.” Luz pulled one of the blankets around herself, leaning back with a yawn. Amity followed suit a respectable distance away from Luz, repeating the mantra _we’re just friends, we’re just friends, we’re just friends_ over and over in her head. As the light glyphs illuminating the room began to wink out, Amity felt something prickling her neck. She reached behind her and pulled out a long brown feather, the same as the ones Luz had found in her hair earlier that day. Amity examined it for a moment, before shrugging and setting it aside. If the blankets were full of feathers, it was no wonder that Luz would have some in her hair. The last light glyph had just faded away when Amity heard Luz shift in her blankets.

“Hey, Amity?” Luz said quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.” At Luz’s response, Amity felt the tightness in her throat return.

“Sure. That’s what friends are for, right?” Amity said. She heard Luz chuckle.

“Yeah. Good night, Amity.” Luz fell silent, and soon the only sound in the room was her rhythmic breathing, and Amity’s frantic heartbeat. Amity turned away from Luz, burying her face in her pillow. Friends. Just friends. It was useless wanting more.

_Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump._

But tell that to her traitorous heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey remember when I said I didn't know when I would update this? It turns out when I would update this was today.  
> Thanks so much for all the lovely support for the first chapter! I greatly appreciate and value all your comments and kudos. I hope you like this chapter, and definitely let me know what you think!


	3. Sickness (Or Something Like It)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something's wrong with Luz, but she needs some convincing to take it seriously.

The human arrived at school the next day clutching a thermos full of tea. She immediately sought out Amity, and asked if she was feeling ill at all.

“I’m so sorry!” Luz had said, concern written all over her face. “I never would have invited you over if I knew that I was sick.” Luz’s voice definitely sounded raspier than usual, and she lacked some of her usual pep.

“Luz, I’m fine.” Amity reassured her, looking Luz up and down. “Why are you at school, if you’re so sick?” Luz waved a hand dismissively.

“Eda’s pretty sure I’m not contagious at this point, but I just had to find you to make sure I hadn’t passed anything on to you. It’s not so bad. I’ve just got a bit of a sore throat, and some leg and arm cramps. Nothing some bed rest won’t fix. But I can’t miss school! I need to learn everything I can so I can be the best witch ever.” Luz straightened up, the usual fire returning to her eyes. Amity couldn’t help but chuckle. Luz’s dedication was admirable, if a bit misguided.

“Okay, I guess. But if you start to feel any worse, you need to go straight to the healer’s.” Amity crossed her arms, trying to look stern. “I don’t want Willow and Gus to tell me at lunch that you collapsed during a lecture.” Amity couldn’t help but let a hint of concern slip into her tone. Luz’s smile softened.

“I’ll be fine! I’m sure everything will be better by tomorrow.”

Everything wasn’t better by tomorrow. Luz showed up the next day with another thermos of tea, and an even raspier voice. Amity gave her a stern look as they waited for the morning bell to ring, crossing her arms. Luz at least had the decency to look sheepish.

“I promise, I’m feeling okay! It’s just my voice. Sometimes humans lose their voices, you know? I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner, since I talk so much.” Luz’s explanation did little to dispel Amity’s concern. This concern was compounded during that day’s Abomination class. The Abomination teacher was giving a live demonstration of some particularly advanced abomination summoning skills, resulting in a high-energy class. Each technique was met with plenty of “oohs” and “ahs”, and Amity couldn’t help but note that Luz wasn’t joining in on the awe. In fact, Luz was strangely quiet, her face twisted into a frown.

“Are you alright?” Amity asked, gently covering one of Luz’s hands with her own. Luz turned to her, frown briefly giving way to a grateful expression.

“Yeah, it’s fine. It’s just really, really loud in here. Louder than usual, I mean.” Luz said, uncharacteristically quiet. This response only served to confuse Amity further. Yes, the classroom was getting a bit rowdy, but it was nothing Luz wasn’t used to.

“It’s probably because you’re sick. You might be a little more sensitive than usual.” Amity thought that was a solid rationale. Witch ears got more sensitive under times of stress, so maybe humans were the same. Luz nodded slowly, groaning when a particularly excited wave of applause swept through the room.

“Do you want to step out for a moment? Maybe go to the healer’s?” Amity’s suggestion only deepened Luz’s frown. “I promise that I’ll share all my notes with you when you get back.” The promise seemed to suffice, and after a few moments Luz whispered a quiet ‘thank you’ and slid out of her seat, heading for the door. Thankfully, the class was so wrapped up in the demonstration that nobody questioned her, and Amity watched her leave with worry dancing across her mind. Hopefully Luz would be feeling better soon. She clearly needed some rest. With a huff, Amity turned her attention back to the teacher, who was currently being tossed in the air by his abomination. Her notes were already extremely detailed, but if she was going to share them with Luz, they had to be perfect. Pencil in hand, she began to write.

Luz didn’t return for the rest of class, and when Amity sought her out at lunch, the human was mysteriously missing. Amity sat down by Gus and Willow, who wore equally concerned expressions. Willow was the one who decided to break the ice.

“Do either of you know what’s _really_ up with Luz? She wasn’t in Plants class.”

“She was having a hard time paying attention in Illusions, and she almost fell out of her chair when the professor cast a basic light glyph. She said it was too bright.” Willow and Gus both sounded just as concerned as Amity felt. Amity was glad that she wasn’t the only one who had noticed.

“She went to the healer’s during Abomination class. She said that everything was too loud. I’m…” Amity trailed off, trying to organize her thoughts. “I’m really worried about her.”

“Me too.” Willow said, and Gus nodded in agreement. “She definitely should have stayed home today. Probably yesterday, too.” Amity wasn’t about to argue with that.

“Do you think we should say something to her?” Amity was nervous to suggest it, but the prospect of upsetting Luz was more appealing than the possibility of her illness getting worse. At her suggestion, Gus’s eyes lit up.

“Yes! We should definitely say something. The humans have a special ritual that they do for this…it’s called an ‘intervention’, I think. Quick, does anyone have any paper or a pencil? We’re supposed to write letters and read them aloud.” Gus looked expectantly from Amity to Willow, who were both giving him blank stares.

“What’s the point of writing a letter if we’re just going to read it to her ourselves?” Willow asked.

“It’s supposed to make it more emotional, I think? I’m not entirely sure.” Gus’s answer made Amity roll her eyes. Trust humans to have some weird way of doing everything.

“Make what more emotional?” Luz’s voice, still strangely raspy and quiet, made them all jump. Luz slid into the chair next to Amity, giving everyone at the table a wide grin. “What are we all talking about?” Willow, Gus, and Amity exchanged an uncomfortable look before Willow cleared her throat.

“Uh…you, Luz. Not in a bad way, or anything!” Willow said hastily, adjusting her glasses before continuing. “We just think that you should take a sick day and stay home from school tomorrow. We’re worried about you.”

“Humans, like witches, need a lot of water and sleep to recover from illnesses. I read that in a book once.” Gus added helpfully. Luz looked from Gus to Willow, then fixed Amity with a plaintive gaze. Amity did her best to keep her face from turning bright red.

“We just want you to be okay, Luz. I can bring you notes from all your classes after school so you don’t miss anything.” Amity said, surprised at how easily the promise slid off her tongue, and surprised by how much she meant it. She really _was_ going soft for this girl.

Luz pouted, and while that did tug on Amity’s heartstrings, she held her ground, trying to keep her expression stern. Willow and Gus did the same. Eventually, Luz sighed and dropped the pout, defeated.

“Fine, fine. I promise I’m okay, you guys, but if you think I should take some time to rest, then I will.” Luz’s promise immediately filled Amity with relief, and she gave Luz a gentle smile, which Luz returned in earnest.

The rest of lunch passed fairly quickly, if a bit more quiet than usual. Luz’s voice wasn’t up to her usual long-winded ramblings, and everyone else kept their volume down for her sake. Still, it was a pleasant lunch and by the time the bell screamed, Amity was in much better spirits.

At the end of the school day, Amity ran to catch up with Luz out front. Eda didn’t usually pick the human up from school, but there she was, sat upon her owl staff, King settled on her lap. Luz was busy talking to Willow, so Amity took the opportunity to speak with Eda.

“Did Luz tell you about how she’s staying home from school tomorrow?” Amity asked. Eda nodded slowly and gave Amity a small smirk.

“Yeah. I’m impressed you ragamuffins managed to convince her. That kid never slows down, even when she probably should.” For a brief moment, concern flickered across her face, but the expression was gone as soon as it had appeared. “We’ll take care of her, kid. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it.”

“We’ll provide her with plenty of snacks!” King piped up cheerily. Amity smiled in spite of herself. Luz would be fine. She had the two most powerful witches in the Boiling Isles to look after her, plus a little creature who was basically a walking pile of cuddles. Luz would be back to normal in no time. Behind Amity, Luz had wrapped up her conversation with Willow.

“Amity!” She wrapped Amity in a tight embrace, and Amity’s face began to heat up. “I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

“R-right.” Amity choked out, still recovering from the surprise hug. “I’ll see you then. With your. Um. Notes.” Luz let go of Amity, who was sure that her face was still a bright red. Luz didn’t seem to notice or care, though, and gave Amity a thumbs up (another strange human custom) before she hopped on Eda’s staff.

“Bye, Amity!” Luz called out as she, Eda, and King sped off into the air. Amity raised a hand to wave goodbye, before deciding that was foolish and instead tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Amity began walking home, a pensive frown on her face. Hopefully the rest would do Luz good. In any case, she had some detailed notes to take. One day. 24 hours. Luz certainly couldn’t get any worse in that amount of time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, already over 100 kudos? That's super crazy. Thanks so much for all your kind support! I always love reading what everyone has to say. Don't worry, we'll be entering owl curse country pretty soon, but I hope everyone is enjoying the ride so far. Thanks for reading, and don't be afraid to hit me up with those sweet, sweet comments. Thanks, folks!


	4. Cursed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At some point, something had to go wrong.

Amity spent the next day with anxiety buzzing in the back of her mind. She had sent Luz a message that morning on her scroll, reminding Luz to stay in bed and drink plenty of water, and reassuring her that she would be over later to drop off notes. Luz had simply replied with “<3”, and Amity already knew that she was going to have a hard time trying not to obsess over what Luz could mean by that. Additionally, while it was reassuring to hear from Luz (even if her messages were a mystery), the fact that she hadn’t sent her usual lengthy texts meant she was still definitely under the weather.

Amity tried not to think too hard about Luz throughout the day, but it certainly wasn’t easy. Luz’s personality and energy usually filled up the entire room she was in, and her absence was painfully obvious. Amity was astonished that nobody else seemed to particularly notice. Couldn’t they see how everything was a little less bright when she wasn’t around? The moment that thought crossed her mind, Amity’s cheeks warmed up, and she buried her face in her notebook. That was something she was going to have to unpack later.

At least Amity was spared her usual lunchtime whirlwind of emotions, but she somehow found herself missing it. She should have been grateful for the fact that she wasn’t sent into a spiral of panic every five seconds, but instead she found herself despondent, spirits barely lifted by Willow and Gus’s amiable chatter. Amity was snapped out of her reverie by Willow’s gentle hand on her shoulder. It didn’t send a wildfire flashing through her veins like Luz’s touch, but it was comforting nonetheless. Willow’s expression was sympathetic.

“She’ll be okay. It’s sweet that you’re so worried about her.” Willow said, giving Amity a small smile. Amity quickly batted the hand off of her shoulder with a huff.

“Shut up. I’m not worried.” There was no real bite to Amity’s words, and Willow laughed.

“Sure. You keep telling yourself that.” Willow’s voice had a teasing edge to it, and for the second time that day Amity felt a blush rise to her face.

“Luz is tough! She can get through anything.” Gus said cheerily, clearly oblivious to the real reason behind Amity and Willow’s bickering.

“You know as well as I do that she has a bad habit of getting herself into trouble.” Amity didn’t feel like her concern was misguided. Chaos followed the human around like it was her shadow.

“Yeah, but she’s got Eda and Lilith and King to look after her. And Hooty, I guess.” Gus said, and Willow nodded in agreement.

“If anything, we should be worried about anything that comes after her while they’re around. Those witches are super scary.” Willow added, and Amity couldn’t help but feel a bit swayed by that argument. Even when limited to using drawn glyphs, Eda and Lilith were a formidable combo. And while King and (regrettably) Hooty didn’t appear to be all that useful when it came to fighting off potential foes, there was no denying that they cared about Luz. Amity took a deep breath and tried to let some of the tension dispel from her shoulders. There was no use worrying. She’d see Luz in just a few hours, anyways. Still, Amity couldn’t help but pull out her scroll and send Luz a quick message.

_Amity: How are you feeling?_

After a minute or so of no response, Amity slipped the scroll back into her pocket, slightly disgruntled. Willow and Gus were probably right. There was probably nothing to worry about. Still, Amity couldn’t help the worry that prickled in the back of her mind.

Once the final bell of the day shrieked, Amity set off for the Owl House, walking a bit faster than usual. Luz’s promised stack of notes (collected from students in each of Luz’s classes, she’d had to cash in a few favors to get that to happen) was tucked in her bookbag, as well as a box of herbal tea, Amity’s personal favorite. Amity tried to keep her heart from racing as she walked. Everything was fine. Luz was fine. Amity repeated this mantra in her head as she walked up the path towards the now-familiar house, which, thankfully, seemed to be fairly peaceful. Amity couldn’t help but smile as she approached the door. Willow and Gus were right. There was nothing to be worried about. Amity had only a few seconds of relief before the calm was shattered by a loud roar. Amity froze, her blood turning to ice.

“That’s no good! Hooty hoot hoot!” Hooty said, sounding a bit too cheery for the situation at hand. From inside the house, Amity could hear muffled shouts, loud crashes, and more growling and roaring—had some sort of animal gotten in the house? Amity saw the hint of a large shadow behind the main stained glass window, and gasped.

“Oh, here she comes!” The words had no sooner left Hooty’s beak when the front door flew open. A huge creature burst out, and Amity instinctively took a few steps back. This animal was about half the size of the slitherbeast she had encountered at the Knee, but no less intimidating. It was covered with feathers in varying shades of brown, and gigantic chestnut wings spread out behind its body. It had large paws that seemed to be a cross between birdlike talons and cat’s paws, with wicked claws that looked like they could tear Amity to ribbons. Its face, drawn back into a grimace, had coal-black eyes, and its snarl revealed huge, razor-sharp fangs. Most disturbingly, Amity couldn’t shake the feeling that she had seen this face somewhere before.

The world seemed to hold its breath as Amity and the beast stood, mere feet apart, eyes locked with each other. The beast was panting heavily, and every muscle in its body seemed tensed, poised to run at any moment. Its grimace relaxed slightly, and its expression shifted to something akin to confusion. Amity’s heart was pounding so hard she could feel it in her hands as she held them out in front of herself. She wasn’t sure if she was trying to shield herself from an oncoming attack, or placate the creature, or both.

Then there was a shout from inside the house, and the spell was broken. The creature let out a loud, guttural roar, and Amity quickly summoned a ball of fire to protect herself. The moment the flame appeared above her hands, the beast shrieked and reared up on its hind legs. Amity almost blasted it with the flames, but something about the way the creature was acting made her hesitate. It didn’t seem like it was about to attack. It seemed…scared. Just as that thought crossed Amity’s mind, the creature turned and bolted towards the woods with surprising agility. It had just vanished into the trees when Eda, King, and Lilith stumbled out of the doorway.

“Where did she go?” King asked. The usually confident and blustery creature sounded worried, almost panicked. Eda and Lilith didn’t answer, both panting heavily and leaning on each other for support. Amity didn’t spend much time questioning it. She was preoccupied with one thing and one thing only.

“Where’s Luz?” She asked, unable to keep the worry out of her voice. King’s little paws fidgeted with his fluffy tail uncomfortably, looking from Amity to Eda with clear anxiety. Eda straightened up slightly, an expression on her face that Amity had never seen before. She looked…scared? Sad? It almost looked like Eda was fighting back tears, and Amity dimly realized that her eyes were now both exactly the same color.

“We have to get her back.” Eda choked out, voice thick with that unidentifiable emotion. The gears in Amity’s brain, which had been grinding noisily since the moment she saw the creature, suddenly whirred into place.

“That thing took Luz?” Amity immediately whirled around to where the creature had disappeared into the woods, taking stock of the large pawprints and broken branches that marked its path. Good. At least it wouldn’t be difficult to track. Amity’s fear was replaced with a steely resolve. If that thing had Luz, Amity needed to get her back. She took off at a run for the forest, heart pounding in her chest.

“Amity, wait—” King called out after her, but any other words were drowned out by the blood roaring in Amity’s ears. She was going to find Luz, and thorns help any creature that tried to stand in her way.

The beast hadn’t gotten far. It only took a few minutes to find it huddled by the cliffside Luz and Amity had danced at on Grom night. It was huddled near the tree they had grown together, curled in on itself, paws clamped over its eyes. Now that Amity was getting a good look at it (and now that it wasn’t poised to bite her head off) the creature was a lot less intimidating. It was whimpering pitifully, interjected by the occasional plaintive groan. If Amity didn’t know better, she’d think it was in pain. Amity shook her head, trying to clear all sympathy from her mind. Amity needed to get Luz back, and she wasn’t going to get anywhere feeling sorry for the thing that took her.

A cursory glance around the area revealed that Luz was nowhere in sight, so Amity stormed out of the woods, directly towards the creature. It had to have excellent hearing, because it quickly removed its paws from its eyes and began shrinking away from Amity, pressing itself into the tree. Amity felt a grim sense of satisfaction at its reaction. If it was scared of her, that meant it would be easier to get it to give Luz back. She summoned a ball of purple fire, and the creature shrieked and hunched down, roughly pawing at its eyes. Amity wasn’t going to hesitate this time. She got close to the creature, probably closer than she should have gotten. She was definitely within range of those wicked talons, but the beast didn’t seem inclined to use them, at least at the moment.

“Where is Luz?” Amity’s voice shook with emotion, but she tried to give it a steely edge. “What did you do with her?” She raised the fireball menacingly. The creature whined, shaking its head. Its face was twisted into a frown, and it looked like the feathers around its dark eyes were streaked with tears. Amity narrowed her eyes. She wasn’t about to let this thing tug at her heartstrings again, not while it had Luz. As she watched, it reared up, shifting its weight and spreading its wings. Amity didn’t know much about birds, but she had been in enough Beast Keeping classes to know the telltale signs of a creature about to take flight. Instinctively, she lobbed the fireball at one of the creature’s hind legs, hoping to unbalance it.

The moment the flames came into contact with the creature’s leg, it let out a strangled cry and dropped back down onto all fours, curling in on itself and scrabbling backwards, clearly trying to get away from Amity. Amity felt a brief pang of guilt before it was quickly replaced with steely resolve. She stepped closer, summoning another ball of purple flames.

“Well? I’m waiting.” Amity was almost shouting as she brought the fireball close to the creature’s face, throwing its features into sharp relief. The creature flinched and let out a low, rumbling growl, baring its fangs, but it didn’t make any move to attack. That feeling of familiarity tugged at the back of Amity’s mind again, and instead of ignoring it, she fixed the beast with a hard stare, trying to figure out what she knew it from. It wasn’t until she looked closely, really closely, that everything suddenly clicked.

The feathers. The black eyes. The aversion to light and sound. And, most painfully, the way the creature refused to make any move to attack her. Amity felt like a ball of lead had just dropped into her stomach, her determination replaced with mounting horror. She extinguished the fireball, slowly reaching out a hand to the creature that she was now fairly sure was…

“Luz?” Amity said quietly. “Is that you?” Amity almost didn’t want to be right, but the creature let out a soft whimper and nodded slowly. Amity felt tears well up in her eyes and rushed forward to wrap her arms around Luz as best she could. She could barely reach halfway around her torso, face buried in her thick feathers.

“I’m so sorry.” She said, trying to fight back the guilty lump in her throat. Luz hesitantly brought up her paws to return Amity’s hug, and when Amity didn’t pull away, Luz clutched her desperately to her fluffy chest. Amity felt Luz’s body heave with sobs, and Amity couldn’t help but let a few of her own escape too. The sheer emotion in Luz’s cries only served to intensify the waves of guilt washing over Amity. “I’m so, so sorry.” She repeated quietly, and Luz’s grip tightened as her sobs died down to whimpers. They stayed like that for some time, taking comfort in each other’s company, Amity occasionally muttering words of comfort that she wasn’t entirely sure Luz could hear.

“It’ll be okay. We’ll figure out some way to turn you back.” Amity said, voice muffled by Luz’s feathers. Amity felt more than heard Luz’s responding whine, and Amity gently ran her fingers through Luz’s feathers in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. Together, they’d figure it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo, it's curse time! Thanks to everyone for sticking around as we start getting into the meat of the story. Also, literally just last chapter I thanked you folks for this story hitting 100 kudos, and now I'm thanking everyone again, because we've somehow hit 200 already?? So wild! Thanks everyone for reading and for all your support, I appreciate all of it very much. Don't hesitate to leave those sweet, sweet comments as well--I read and love each and every one. Thanks!


	5. Back to the Owl House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz needs a bit of TLC after everything that's happened.

It didn’t take Eda, King, and Lilith very long to find them once Amity and Luz’s standoff ended. Amity noticed Luz’s reaction before she heard anything herself. Luz’s body tensed and her paws slid from around Amity’s back. She took a hesitant step backwards, eyes fixed on something behind Amity, the beginnings of a whine building in her throat. Amity turned just in time to see the three of them stumble out of the trees. Amity balled her fists and readied herself to defend Luz, but surprisingly, Eda and Lilith made no move to attack, and King looked more nervous than angry. It was almost as if they already knew. As they approached, Amity spared a glance back at Luz, who still looked poised to run at any second, but hadn’t moved yet. Amity gave her a small smile, and some of the tension seemed to slip away from Luz’s shoulders. When Amity turned back, Eda, King, and Lilith were standing about ten feet away. They made no move to come closer, but Amity couldn’t help but feel nervous.

“Don’t do anything to scare her. That’s Luz.” Amity said, making sure to keep her voice down for Luz’s sake.

“We know.” Lilith said, giving Eda a pained look. Eda was stood stock still, and Amity was finally able to place her expression from earlier. It was the same feeling that Amity felt now—guilt. There were tears brimming in the old witch’s eyes, eyes that carefully watched Luz’s every move.

“Luz, I’m so, so sorry.” Eda said. Her voice shook so much that she almost didn’t sound like herself. She took a hesitant step forward, before collapsing to her knees. “We never would have tried to get rid of the curse if we had known. We thought…since you were a human, it wouldn’t…” Eda trailed off before taking a deep, shuddering breath. “Never mind. We should have known. _I_ should have known.” She said bitterly, turning her gaze to the ground. “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, especially not you.”

Amity heard rustling from behind her, and for a brief moment she was afraid that Luz was about to run. Instead, Luz brushed past Eda, walking with an uneven gait to sit in front of her mentor. She trilled softly until Eda looked up at her, then sat back on her hind legs and spread her paws in an unmistakable gesture. Eda snorted.

“Really? You want a hug? After I’ve cursed you?” Luz repeated the sound, waving her paws. The tears in Eda’s eyes spilled over, and she stood to wrap her arms around Luz, who reciprocated in kind. While it was a very sweet moment, something Eda had said set off alarm bells in Amity’s mind.

“You cursed her?” She asked, somewhere between incredulous and unspeakably angry. Every witch knew that curses were extremely dangerous, and usually extremely painful. They were only to be used on one’s worst enemy, and only if you could live the rest of your life knowing that you had ruined someone for the rest of theirs. Eda was eccentric, sure, and sometimes put Luz in dangerous situations, but Amity never thought she would be so coldhearted as to curse someone.

“Not exactly.” Amity had been so wrapped up in watching Eda and Luz that she had almost forgotten that King and Lilith were there, at least until Lilith spoke. Lilith didn’t look quite as heartbroken as Eda, but she was still clearly in emotional turmoil. Her expression seemed calm, but as Amity looked she could tell that there was a certain stiffness to Lilith’s posture, and when she reached up a hand to smooth her robe, said hand was shaking aggressively.

“Eda has been suffering from a curse for quite some time. Recently, that curse became shared between the two of us, and we’ve been working together to get rid of it. We found some glyphs that would allow us to extract the curse. We believed that, without a viable host nearby, it would simply dissipate.” Lilith sighed, guilt appearing more plainly on her features. “We never considered that it would take a human as a host. That’s why she looks like…that.” Lilith gestured vaguely to Luz, who was still hugging Eda. At some point, King had joined in, and now the demon was also nestled in Luz’s fluffy arms. The sight returned the lump to Amity’s throat. She blinked away tears and turned back to Lilith.

“There’s some way to reverse it, right? Eda didn’t look like that all the time.” Amity definitely would have remembered if the owl lady regularly turned into a giant, birdlike beast. Lilith hummed thoughtfully.

“Eda used to need a potion every day to keep herself from transforming. I don’t think we have any left, but we should be able to get some easily enough. It’s not perfect, but that should suffice until we figure out how to expel the curse.” Lilith said thoughtfully. Amity sighed in relief. At least Luz wouldn’t be stuck like this forever.

Amity heard a low rumble, and her eyes immediately snapped back to Luz. Luz still seemed perfectly content, but her ears had flicked up towards the sky. Amity looked up to see dark clouds swirling over their heads. She had been so preoccupied with…well, everything, that she hadn’t seen the rising storm. Eda seemed to have noticed as well, and pulled away from Luz, who whined in complaint.

“We need to get you back to the house before the boiling rain starts, kid. Glyphs or not, I don’t know if we’ll be able to make a protection barrier big enough to shield you.” Luz nodded seriously and took a few unsteady steps back in the direction of the Owl House before collapsing with a whimper. Eda rushed forward, checking her over with a concerned expression. When her gaze landed on the burn on her leg, Eda frowned, gently running her hand over the singed feathers adjacent to the angry red flesh. “How did that happen?” Amity felt like someone had just punched her in the stomach, and her eyes began to sting. She opened her mouth to confess, but another roll of thunder interrupted her. Eda sighed, turning and waving to Amity and Lilith.

“Come on, we’ll need all hands on deck for this one. Help me support her.”

The walk back to the Owl House was arduous, and a spike of guilt plunged into Amity’s heart every time Luz whimpered or stumbled because of her bad leg. _Which was your fault, by the way,_ Amity’s brain insisted. Amity tried to quell the maelstrom of shame brewing in her mind, but it certainly wasn’t easily. Luckily, they managed to get Luz in the house just as the first few drops of rain began to patter down on the house.

“Welcome back! Did you have a nice trip, hooty hoot?” Hooty asked, miserably failing to read the tone of the situation. Nobody bothered to respond to him, and instead everyone helped support Luz as she ascended the stairs. Once they reached Luz’s room, she crawled inside and slumped on the floor with a contented rumble.

“Are you sure, kiddo? You can take my room if you want. It’s a lot bigger, and there’s already a nest you can sleep in up there.” Eda said, raising an eyebrow as she looked into the room. Sprawled out as she was, Luz took up over a third of the room’s space, but even so, she shook her head, yawning loudly. Eda’s gaze softened. “Okay. That’s fine, then.” She turned to Amity, pointing over at Luz, who seemed to be already starting to doze off. “Stay here while I go make her some tea. She’s going to need it after all that growling.” Amity dimly remembered the box she had brought, and quickly opened her bookbag to find it. She hesitantly held out the slightly battered box to Eda, who regarded it with skepticism.

“I brought this. For her. Before I knew about this whole thing, obviously.” Amity could feel her face heating up, but thankfully Eda didn’t comment on it as she took the box.

“Thanks. You’re a good kid.” Eda said, smiling gently. She looked back into the room, where Luz was currently pawing some blankets and pillows around her to create a makeshift nest. “Keep an eye on her until I get back, okay? She’s dealing with everything pretty well, all things considered, but I don’t want her to get spooked and run off again.” Eda paused, as if trying to think of how to phrase whatever she was about to say next. Her eyes were clouded with grief and guilt. “I can’t lose her.”

That, at least, was something Amity could understand. She nodded resolutely.

“I can’t lose her either.” She said, and was surprised to find that that was the truth. Eda gave her a long, hard look, before clapping her gently on the shoulder and walking down the hallway, calling out, “be back in a jiffy!” Amity let out a breath she didn’t even know she’d been holding and looked back into the room to see Luz staring at her with those inscrutable black eyes. Amity’s throat constricted, and she found herself at a loss for words. How could Luz possibly want her around at the moment, after what Amity had done to her?

Almost as if sensing Amity’s inner turmoil, Luz patted the pile of blankets next to her in an unmistakable _come here_ gesture. Amity remained in the doorway, frozen, until Luz began to stand up. Amity rushed forward, holding a hand out to Luz to stop her.

“No! No, I’m coming. Don’t hurt yourself.” Luz settled back down on the ground with a pleased rumble, and Amity sat down on the proffered pile of blankets. Luz was mere inches away from her, but Amity made no move to touch her. She already felt like she had overstayed her welcome. _You hurt her, you hurt her, you hurt her,_ an insidious voice chanted in the back of her mind. _She was scared and alone and you hurt her_. Amity heard Luz shift behind her, and turned to see her fixing Amity with a curious look. Luz cocked her head to the side and let out a quiet chirrup that almost sounded like a question. Amity gave her a shaky smile. Trust Luz to be concerned about her even while she was under the effects of a curse. Luz could be an infuriatingly good person sometimes. Amity supposed that was one of the reasons she liked her so much.

“It’s fine, Luz. Don’t worry about me.” Amity said, trying to keep her voice from trembling. It must not have worked, because Luz frowned. She shifted around again, and Amity found herself pressed up against Luz’s fluffy torso as the owl beast adjusted herself until she was right next to Amity. Amity felt a blush rise to her face, and against her better judgment, she leaned back into Luz’s feathers. Luz let out a contented rumble as she lowered her head down onto her paws, closing her eyes. Right. Luz was a very tactile person. Any gentle physical contact was probably helpful right now, even if it was from someone she might not want around. Amity sighed, absentmindedly bringing up her hand to gently run her fingers through Luz’s feathers. Luz made a contented trilling sound, and Amity couldn’t help but smile.

The moment was interrupted by the slow creaking of the door and the pattering of tiny footsteps as King walked in, arms laden with medical supplies.

“I’m here to fix up my boo boo buddy!” King announced, brandishing a roll of bandages. “Where is it?” Amity took a deep breath and beckoned to King, pointing at Luz’s injured leg. King whistled. “Ouch! That’s a rough one.” King’s words returned the ball of lead to Amity’s stomach, and she determinedly looked anywhere besides the burn. King turned to Luz and gave her a very over-the-top salute.

“Never fear, boo boo buddy! I’ll have you fixed up before you know it! Hey, you!” He pointed to Amity, who gulped.

“Me?” She said, her voice a little too squeaky for her liking.

“Yes, you! I need your help. I have little hands. Be my assistant!” It was only fair, Amity supposed, that she would have to patch up Luz after hurting her. But that didn’t make the process any less painful, for either her or Luz. Each twitch and whimper from Luz felt like a knife to her chest, and Amity physically flinched when Luz hissed as they applied disinfectant. Amity had been a little worried that the self-proclaimed King of demons would need to work on his bedside manner, but King was surprisingly gentle and kind. Once he had finished wrapping the bandages around Luz’s leg, he took some of the extra bandages and wrapped them around his own leg.

“Boo boo buddies!” His proclamation made both Luz and Amity laugh, and as he toddled out of the room with the supplies in his arms, Amity couldn’t help but feel grateful that Luz had such good friends to look after her. The thought had no sooner crossed her mind when Eda walked in with what appeared to be a punch bowl full of steaming tea. She set the bowl down in front of Luz, chuckling as Luz’s face lit up when she saw it.

“I thought a cup might be a little too small for your paws. This is the biggest bowl I have.” As Eda talked, Luz carefully lifted the bowl to her mouth and sipped the tea. Her ears perked up and she looked from Eda to Amity, then back down at the tea. She held out the bowl to Amity, chattering excitedly. Amity blushed again. Of course Luz would remember that this was her favorite tea. The human’s—er, owl beast’s—thoughtfulness was going to be the death of her.

“I’m good, Luz. I brought it for you. It’s all yours.” Amity said, trying (and failing) to sound nonchalant. Luz gave Amity a big grin, which still managed to be endearing despite the sharp fangs in her smile. As Luz finished the tea, Amity could see the telltale signs of sleepiness starting to take over. Her eyes began to droop, and she slumped down to lay her head back down on her paws. Eda took the bowl, an uncharacteristically soft expression on her face.

“Get some rest, kiddo. You’ve earned it.” She leaned over to tousle the feathers on top of Luz’s head before leaving the room, bowl under one arm. Amity watched Luz settle down with a lump rising in her throat. Now that Luz didn’t seem to be in danger of running off, Amity really needed to leave. She had already overstayed her welcome, and she was sure that Luz didn’t want her around.

“I should…I should get going.” Amity said, tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. She wiped them away roughly, hoping that Luz wouldn’t notice. Amity wasn’t the one who should be crying right now. Luz whined softly, and Amity turned towards the door. She didn’t deserve Luz’s sympathy. “I’m sorry for staying so long after I hurt you. I just needed to know that you were going to be okay. But now that you’re feeling better, I don’t want to force you to spend any more time around me.” Amity hadn’t meant to say so much, but the stress of the day had worn away at her. She took a step towards the door, but stopped in her tracks at the gentle weight of a paw on her shoulder. She turned to see Luz looking at her with a pleading expression, and the owl beast let out another, more insistent whine.

“Luz, what…?” Amity said, at a loss for words. “You can’t possibly want me to stay, not after what happened.” Amity had no sooner finished her words when Luz drew her into a gentle hug, murmuring softly. Once again enveloped by feathers, Amity felt more tears spring to her eyes. “You…you want me here?” She asked breathlessly, not daring to believe it. She felt Luz nod, her quiet murmurings getting more insistent. After a few moments, Luz pulled away, fixing Amity with a worried look. Amity gave her a small smile.

“Okay. I’ll stay.” She said, and Luz chirruped happily, motioning to the pile of pillows next to her. The moment Amity sat down, Luz pressed up next to her, rumbling contentedly. Amity’s breath caught in her throat, and her heart pounded in her chest. Luz clearly had no such problems, and as Amity listened, her breathing evened out, and her movements stilled. Amity lay back into Luz’s feathers and let out an exhausted sigh, letting Luz’s gentle purrs soothe her nerves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'd want a warm drink and a lot of hugs after going through the intensely traumatic experience of involuntarily turning into a giant beast, wouldn't you?  
> As usual, the support for this fic continues to blow me away! Thank y'all so very much. I loved reading everyone's comments for the big reveal last chapter, haha--glad it lived up to the hype. Definitely let me know what you think of this chapter too, and thanks for reading!


	6. In the Light of the Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A good night's sleep can work wonders.

Amity didn’t remember her bed being so soft and fluffy. Yet, here she was, curled up in what felt as comfortable as a pile of down pillows. Amity wasn’t quite ready to leave dreamland, and pushed back into the pillows, mumbling incomprehensibly. When sleep continued to evade her, she groaned and reached for the edge of her bed, thoughts slow and foggy. To her surprise, she was met only with feathers. Feathers. How strange. All drowsiness fled from her mind when she heard a sound like a soft chuckle. Amity snapped her eyes open to see owl beast Luz looking at her with the sort of expression that made her feel woozy, even if Luz’s features were a bit monstrous at the moment. Luz chirruped softly and butted her head gently against Amity’s cheeks, which were now burning bright red. Amity quickly scrambled to her feet, almost falling over in her haste.

“Luz! I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you. I’m sorry, that probably wasn’t very comfortable…for you, I mean. For me it was pretty nice, and, um…I’ve been talking for too long.” Amity trailed off, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. Luz made that chuckling sound again and waved a paw dismissively, as if saying _‘don’t mention it’_. Then she yawned, stretching out her limbs. Amity had to duck to avoid getting bowled over by Luz’s wings. Luz had always been fairly clumsy, so Amity supposed it wasn’t a surprise that she didn’t quite know the size of her new form. After she was done stretching, Luz shakily got to her paws, trying to avoid putting weight on her hurt leg. She must have seen the guilty look flash across Amity’s face, and Luz flashed her a cheery grin, which the fangs made only slightly terrifying.

“How are you feeling?” Amity asked, shoving down the foolish feeling of relief and hopefulness that washed over her upon seeing Luz’s smile. Luz chattered happily, taking a step forward and butting Amity’s head with her cheek again. In a sudden rush of boldness, Amity laughed and reached up to run her fingers through the feathers on top of Luz’s head. Luz rumbled happily, and the resulting enthusiastic (but gentle) headbutt was almost enough to knock Amity to the floor, sparking another bout of giggling.

“Oh, good. You two are up.” Eda’s voice from the doorway jolted Amity out of her breathless laughter, and she quickly shut her mouth and looked at Eda, face bright red. Eda didn’t seem to notice, or if she did, she didn’t mention it. She held a bottle of a vibrant orange potion in her hand, which she almost dropped when Luz bounded forward to give Eda a happy nuzzle as well.

“Hey, watch it! We had to go to the night market to get this stuff, and this was the only bottle we could find. King had to wrestle Tibbles for it. He’s still washing the mud off.” Eda’s voice lacked any real bite, and her expression softened when Luz pulled away with a pout. “Ah, I’m glad you’re feeling better, kid. Honestly, I’m impressed you’ve been dealing so well with this.” Eda looked Luz up and down, nodding her approval. “Maybe it’s because you’re a human, or because you didn’t get the curse all at once, or both, or something else, but as you know, I was never this cuddly when I was cursed.” Eda uncorked the bottle and held it out to Luz, who downed its contents in one gulp. Eda and Amity watched Luz anxiously, waiting for some kind of change. Luz hissed and coughed, closing her eyes, and when she opened her eyes, they looked like her regular human eyes, if a bit bigger.

“Am I back to normal? I don’t know if it worked.” Luz said, rearing up on her hind legs and looking herself up and down. Her voice, at least, seemed normal, and lacked the raspy quality that it had carried in the early stages of Luz’s ‘sickness’.

“Luz! Your voice!” Just the sound of Luz’s voice was enough to make Amity feel a rush of relief. Luz gave her a confused look.

“My voice…?” Luz reached up and gently felt around her throat with a paw, before understanding dawned on her face. “My voice! You can understand me?” This prospect clearly excited Luz, who dropped back down onto all fours and leaned a bit too close to Amity, staring at her intently.

“Y-yes.” Amity choked out, and Luz reared back again, pumping one of her paws in the air excitedly.

“Yes! Man, owls have it rough. Remind me to apologize to Owlbert the next time he’s around.” Luz said. Eda gave Luz a smile, then eyed the empty potion bottle.

“Looks like we’ll need to get some more from the day market. I was hoping that one would be enough, but the curse was getting stronger before Lilith and I split it.” Eda paused, as if picking her next words carefully. “I don’t know how much you remember from yesterday…but I’m so, so sorry, Luz. I never meant to put you in danger, and I never would have removed the curse if I had known.” Eda sounded a bit less emotional than yesterday, but Amity could still hear the slight waver and thickness to her tone. Luz gave Eda a warm smile.

“I know you would never hurt me, Eda. It’s okay! We’ll figure it out.” Luz said, and Amity wished that she possessed the human’s confidence.

“How much do you remember from yesterday?” Amity asked hesitantly. A guilty part of her was hoping that Luz wouldn’t remember Amity confronting and attacking her. Luz looked thoughtful for a moment, reaching up and scratching behind her ear with a paw.

“I think I remember everything…but it’s kind of hard to make sense of it. It was just so much.” Luz frowned, and some of the pep seemed to drain out of her. “Everything was super bright and loud, and for a while my arms and legs felt really sore, and until I got more used to it, it was like I was seeing and hearing everything from underwater.” Luz’s feathers fluffed out and a shiver ran through her body. She almost looked like she was going to say something else, but then she perked up again, feathers smoothing. “I feel much better now, though! Almost like myself, except I look like, you know…” She made a vague gesture to her body with one of her paws. “…This.” Eda nodded understandingly, and some of the tension in the old witch seemed to subside.

“That’s good to hear. It’s going to be bed rest for you today, kiddo. No wacky hijinks or crazy quests. You’re staying put until King and I get the chance to head out to the day market and get you some more potions.” Eda crossed her arms, giving Luz a stern look. Luz pouted, but didn’t make any arguments. Eda turned to Amity, fixing her with a curious look. “Your parents are probably looking for you, huh? I would have given you a ride home yesterday, but I didn’t want to leave while Luz was still like this.” Eda paused, smirking. “Plus you two looked so cute, cuddled up together like that. I figured you could use the rest.” Amity’s face flushed a bright red, but a chill ran down her spine. She hadn’t checked her scroll since yesterday. Her parents were probably livid, and wouldn’t take ‘helping out a cursed human’ as a valid reason for being out of the house all night. At least it was a weekend—if she had missed school, she would have never caught the end of it. She pulled out her scroll with a sigh, readying herself for the volley of messages from her parents. To her surprise, there were only two messages from her mother.

_Odalia: Your father and I have been called away on business this weekend. Make sure the house is spotless when we return._

_Odalia: We noticed that you did not return from school at the regular time. We will be talking about the importance of clearly communicating your schedule to us._

Amity let out a sigh of relief. She was sure to get in trouble, but at least it would wait a few days. And, she supposed, looking at Luz’s hopeful face and feeling her heart rate tick up a few beats, it didn’t matter if she was out of the house while her parents were gone.

“It’s okay. It looks like I can stay for a bit longer.” The gears in Amity’s brain immediately ground to a halt as she began stumbling over her words. “That is, uh, if you want me to stay, but if you don’t I can-“ Amity was suddenly enveloped in feathers and gently lifted into the air. Her heart began pounding in her ears and her head was suddenly filled with thoughts like _‘huh?’_ and _‘wow, very soft’_ and _‘oh thorns, this is how I die’_.

“Of course you can stay!” The sheer joy in Luz’s voice melted Amity into putty. The owl beast gave her a tight squeeze before setting her back down on the ground and sitting back on her hind legs. “I mean, only if you want to.” Luz said, looking a little sheepish, fidgeting with her front paws. Struck by a sudden feeling of boldness (and possibly just craving Luz’s touch again) Amity reached out and took one of Luz’s paws, giving her a small smile.

“I want to.” There was a beat of silence where Luz looked at Amity with a surprisingly intense expression, and Amity felt like she might explode, but then Eda cleared her throat a bit too loudly and the spell was broken.

“Well, if that’s settled, do you kids want to come downstairs and get some breakfast?” Eda said, gesturing to the door. Luz whooped excitedly and made a beeline for the stairs, limp significantly less pronounced than yesterday. From the sound of it, Luz knocked a few things off the walls in her excitement. Amity rolled her eyes, but laughed anyways. Eda walked out of the room to survey the damage.

“That kid’s going to be the death of me, I swear.” Eda mumbled, though she couldn’t keep a hint of fondness out of her tone. _Me too,_ Amity couldn’t help but think as she followed Luz downstairs, unable to keep herself from smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sure do love writing fluff with literal fluffy Luz. Thanks so much for all your amazing support, and the lovely comments! I absolutely love reading each and every one and seeing what people have to say. As usual, don't be afraid to leave those sweet sweet comments, and thanks so very much for reading!


	7. Study Buddies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It would be a lot easier to go over notes together if Luz's touches didn't make Amity's brain turn to mush.

The Owl House was already a chaotic place, and Luz being stuck in owl form only made it more hectic. She had almost upended the table at breakfast, and shattered two mugs while trying to help put them away. Luckily, Eda’s favorite mug had been spared. Nobody had the heart to get frustrated with her, especially since Luz was in such good spirits. If Amity closed her eyes, she could almost convince herself that it was a regular day at the Owl House.

The other inhabitants of the house seemed to be dealing with the change fairly well. King, always a sucker for cuddles, was understandably pleased that his friend was a veritable ball of fluff. Eda seemed a lot more relaxed now that Luz was happy and lucid, though she still kept a very close eye on her. The most uncomfortable person in the house was Lilith, who stopped by briefly to offer Luz a stiff but seemingly heartfelt apology for the whole mess before returning to her research.

Amity found herself relaxing as well, against her better judgment. There was still plenty to worry about, and clearly Luz wasn’t out of the woods yet, but Luz’s excitement was contagious. She had almost knocked over Amity’s chair several times to give her playful nudges or surprise hugs, but Amity wasn’t complaining. Except, of course, for the fact that every time Luz touched her for more than a second or two, her face turned a bright red. Amity had caught Eda looking at her with a sly grin a few times, which sent her into another spiral of worry and overthinking. At least Luz hadn’t noticed how flustered Amity was, but it was only a matter of time.

Shortly after breakfast, Eda and King departed for the day market to get Luz some more potion. Before they left, Eda pulled Amity aside and linked their scrolls so Amity would be able to contact her.

“Let me know if anything happens to Luz while I’m gone.” Eda fixed Amity with a stern glare. “And I mean _anything_.” Amity nodded resolutely, and some of the tension drained from Eda’s shoulders as she turned back to King and Luz, who were watching a video on Luz’s phone. Eda scooped up King and strode towards the door, ignoring the “weh!” of protest from the little demon. She opened the door, but before leaving, she looked back at Amity and Luz, a hint of concern in her expression.

“I shouldn’t be gone for much more than an hour, if that. You’ll be okay, right?” Eda’s voice lacked its characteristic hard edge. Luz nodded vigorously, and for what felt like the umpteenth time that day Amity’s brain was set on fire by Luz reaching out and pulling Amity in close as though it was nothing.

“We’ll be fine! We’ll just be going over notes from school, nothing dangerous.” Luz said cheerily. Eda nodded, and, seeing the expression on Amity’s face, smirked slightly.

“Well, call me if you need me. I’ll be back soon.” Even after the door slammed shut, Luz didn’t immediately let go of Amity, which did nothing to help the witch’s racing heart. Physical contact was already something that was incredibly overwhelming for her (usually in a good way) when it came to Luz. Even casual touches were enough to temporarily melt Amity’s brain into putty. Luz’s beast form changed the entire playing field. If Amity had thought that hugs were overwhelming before, she had clearly never thought about the sensation of being pressed into Luz’s fluffy feathers. To make matters worse (or better, depending on how you looked at it), Luz had thus far been even cuddlier than before in beast form. Amity wasn’t quite sure what to think.

After a few moments, Luz pulled away. Amity immediately found herself missing the contact, then internally chided herself for the foolish thought. Luz settled herself next to the couch, looking at Amity expectantly.

“So, what did I miss while I was gone?” It was astonishing how nonchalant Luz sounded. It was almost as though she had simply been out for a regular illness. Amity blinked, confused. Luz was a good student, but Amity definitely hadn’t thought they’d actually be going over notes, not with her current state and everything that was going on.

“Seriously? You actually want to go over notes?” Amity couldn’t help the incredulity that crept into her tone. Luz’s face fell an almost imperceptible amount, before she immediately perked up again.

“Well, yeah! I don’t want to fall behind!” She said brightly, as though it were the most obvious line of thinking in the world. Seeing that the blank look on Amity’s face was unchanged, Luz sighed.

“A lot happened yesterday. I just want something that will…I don’t know, make me feel normal, I guess?” Luz offered, her tone a little more serious. Amity’s expression softened, and she nodded.

“Okay. We can go over notes then, if you want.” At Amity’s words, Luz’s face lit up. Before she could fully register what was happening, she was enveloped in another fluffy and entirely overwhelming hug. When Luz pulled away (after what seemed like a second or two too long), Amity expected her to move back to where she had been sitting, but Luz barely moved. She was so close that Amity could feel the tips of her feathers tickling her arm. After a few moments of awkward silence, Amity cleared her throat and turned away, rifling through her bookbag until she found the promised notes. She spread them out on the coffee table, and Luz leaned over to look at them, narrowing her eyes.

“These notes are crazy small…and has the paper always been this bright?” Luz rubbed at her eyes for a moment, then shrugged. “I think the curse really threw off my perception of light and dark. Maybe if I…” Luz reached out with a paw and tried to pick up a sheet of notes, knocking almost every other paper off the table in the process. She held it up to her face, squinting to try and make out the words. She struck a comical figure, a giant bird-creature trying to make out the writing on the comparatively small paper.

“If you want, I can just explain the notes to you.” Amity said, gathering up the discarded notes and placing them in a neat pile. Luz whipped her head around to look at her, excitement written all over her expression. Amity could already feel her face begin to heat up, and her brain scrambled to find a way to downplay her offer. “You know, it’ll be like Azura—”

“It’ll be just like Azura book club!” Luz said, still more enthusiastic than Amity thought the situation warranted. “You’re such a good narrator, I’m sure I’ll be learning all sorts of things in no time.” The compliment caught Amity off guard, and she couldn’t help but chuckle nervously.

“Hardly. Your character voices are way better than mine.” Amity said, waving a hand dismissively. Luz laughed.

“Thanks, but I think character voices would be a little distracting for going over notes.” Luz tried to gently place her paper on the table, but scattered the notes again in the process. Amity couldn’t find it in herself to be upset, smiling to herself as she gathered the papers and began reading aloud.

Amity had thought that reading the notes would be a good way to distract herself from Luz’s closeness, but no such luck. It didn’t help that Luz seemed to take every opportunity to get even closer to Amity. It started with a bout of laughter that made her move slightly closer, then a friendly nudge, and seemingly countless other small gestures that resulted in Luz essentially pressed up against Amity. Amity was having a difficult time keeping her voice steady and her breathing even. It was just so _overwhelming_. She both wanted to push Luz away and grab hold of her and never let go, which was certainly a very confusing state of indecisiveness. Instead of doing either of these things, she decided to ask a question.

“Uh…Luz? Why are you so…touchy, today?” After asking her question, Amity felt Luz stiffen at her side. “Not that you’re touchy, I mean, it’s just, you’ve been touching me a lot, and I wasn’t sure why, and…” Amity trailed off. Her heart dropped when Luz’s face fell, and the owl beast immediately began to pull away. The witch immediately missed the contact, and silently cursed herself for saying anything.

“I’m sorry, I forgot that you don’t always like people touching you. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’m sorry, I’ll stop-“ Luz’s words were cut off by Amity instinctively reaching out and closing her hand around Luz’s wrist. She met Amity’s eyes, and Amity felt a tug in her heart at the fear and resignation she saw there. It was sometimes easy to forget that Luz had her own insecurities, since she always seemed so confident. Seeing Luz nervous, and nervous about upsetting Amity, gave Amity a lurching feeling in her stomach.

“Luz. It’s okay.” Amity spoke slowly and deliberately, steadily holding Luz’s gaze. “I don’t mind. Really. I was just wondering why.” Amity said, her tone level and gentle. Some of the tension seemed to drain out of Luz, who looked away with a sigh.

“It’s just…when I was little, whenever I was sad or hurt or anything, my mom would always give me a big hug, and tell me everything was going to be okay. I guess I kind of needed that as I grew up, too. I’ve always been a hugger, but touching people, and being touched…it helps ground me. It makes me feel like everything’s going to be okay. And I think I need that right now.” Luz’s voice sounded strained, and when she glanced back at Amity, Amity thought she saw tears sparkling in the corners of her eyes. Her suspicions were confirmed when Luz raised a paw to wipe her eyes with a watery chuckle. “I’m sorry, it’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid.” Amity insisted, and Luz almost seemed surprised by the fierceness of her tone. “Luz, so much has happened to you in the past 24 hours. It’d be weirder if you didn’t need some reassurance.” Amity paused for a moment, hesitance creeping into her tone. “Do you want a hug right now?”

Luz fixed her with a look that seemed to be somewhere between incredulity and another imperceptible emotion, a look that almost knocked the wind out of Amity. Then she nodded, and slowly spread out her arms. Amity leaned forward and embraced Luz, who held her tightly, almost desperately, to her chest. As she held Luz, she could feel some of the tension drain out of the owl beast. She felt more than heard Luz sigh happily, and Amity couldn’t help but smile into Luz’s feathers. While the contact did still make Amity feel as though her nerve endings were on fire, something about this hug managed to keep Amity from spiraling into panic. Probably because it was for Luz—she could keep a handle on her emotions if it meant making Luz feel better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After a brief break, I've returned! Thanks for your patience. Hope y'all liked this chapter--I'm always a sucker for ending on a hug. As always, thanks so much for all the support! I am truly blown away and really appreciate it. I always love reading what everyone has to say. Don't forget to leave those sweet sweet comments, and thanks so much for reading!


	8. Return to Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz returns to normal. Amity returns home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey just wanted to warn y'all that the Blight parents are in this chapter and they are Bad and do abusive things. If that's something that makes you uncomfortable feel free to skip to the end after Odalia says "we must talk", I'll put a summary of what happens.

By the time the study session was over, Amity was exceedingly grateful that she hadn’t done something incredibly stupid or embarrassing. Luz’s touch was a dangerous mixture of comforting and intoxicating. Additionally, knowing that Luz actually wanted, needed to be touched gave Amity the perfect excuse to do all sorts of foolish things, like lean up against her, gently run her fingers through Luz’s feathers and hair, and relax into Luz’s frequent and all-encompassing hugs. Once or twice Amity caught herself looking at Luz’s face for a bit too long, or speaking with a tone a little too fond to be platonic, and she internally reprimanded herself. _Control yourself, Blight. The moment she finds out how you really feel, this is all over._

The notes provided Amity with a needed distraction from her irrational thoughts. It had certainly felt a little strange at first to be going over notes while Luz was in her owl beast form, but Luz had been right in the end about needing some normalcy. There was something to be said about doing something so mundane after a crazy 24 hours. Amity could almost visibly see Luz’s spirits lifting as they talked. There were a few moments where Amity thought she saw Luz looking at her with that strange expression on her face, and while that definitely caused some worry to prickle at the back of Amity’s mind, she decided to ignore it for the time being. _Especially_ , Amity thought grimly, _considering what I did to her_.

Every once in a while, Amity found herself looking at Luz’s injured leg. She was hyper aware of every small wince or slightly pained noise Luz made whenever she put too much weight on it. Even though Luz had made it abundantly clear that she still wanted Amity around, Amity couldn’t help but feel guilt rise up within her every time she thought too hard about it.

“Okay, just so I’ve got this right, when you’re casting an abomination spell, it’s important to…” Luz trailed off, and Amity looked up to see her fixing Amity with a concerned look. “Hey, you okay?” Crap. It seemed that Amity wasn’t as subtle as she had hoped. Amity sighed, staring determinedly at the coffee table, the rug, anywhere that wasn’t at Luz. The fact that Luz was quite large and right next to her didn’t help her very much.

“I’m fine. I just…” Amity felt a stubborn lump rise in her throat, and swallowed thickly, trying to keep her breathing even. Some traitorous tears welled up in the corner of her eyes, and she turned her head downward, hoping Luz wouldn’t see them. “I know I said it before, but I don’t know how much you remember, and, well…I’m sorry. For hurting you.” Against her better judgment, Amity looked at Luz’s bandages, and brought up a hand to scrub roughly at her eyes.

“Hey. Look at me.” Luz’s voice was quiet but firm, and Amity took a deep, shuddering breath before meeting Luz’s eyes. She was surprised by the resolve she found there. Luz looked serious, a far cry from her usual goofy demeanor. Luz reached out and placed her front paws on Amity’s shoulders. “You didn’t know. I didn’t even really know what was happening to me. It was an accident. Don’t beat yourself up about it.” The conviction in Luz’s words lessened the weight of the lead ball in Amity’s stomach, and she nodded slowly. Luz’s gaze softened, and she chuckled and cracked a small grin. “Honestly, I’m just impressed that you were willing to fight a big monster to get me back. Even if that big monster was me.”

“I would have fought anything to get you back.” The words escaped Amity before she had fully understood what she was saying. The laughter died in Luz’s throat, and she fixed Amity with that strange look again. Amity’s breath caught in her throat, and the room was dead silent. She could feel heat rising on her face. The tension was palpable, buzzing in the air like a living thing. Amity’s brain kicked into overdrive. _Oh thorns, you’ve really done it now._ After a few seconds, Amity tried to break the tension. She attempted a halfhearted smile and gave Luz a gentle push.

“Don’t test me, Noceda. I told you I wasn’t going soft.” Amity’s words shattered the silence, and the tension in the room eased. Luz laughed and pulled Amity into another hug, which she happily melted into.

“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” Luz said, her tone carrying a teasing lilt. Before Amity could respond, she heard the loud and jarring sound of the door swinging open with such force that it slammed into the wall.

“We’re back!” Eda’s triumphant voice rang out across the room, and Amity heard the distinct noise of glass bottles clinking together. Luz whooped and pulled away from Amity to go greet Eda and King at the door. Amity immediately found herself missing the contact, then chided herself for such a foolish thought. She turned to see Eda unloading a sack filled with about a dozen bottles of the same vibrant orange potion she had given Luz earlier. It seemed that Luz had learned from this morning, as she waited until Eda was finished unpacking before tackling her and the King of demons in a hug.

“Geez, miss me much?” Eda grumbled, but there was no real bite to it.

“Of course!” Luz said cheerily, and Amity saw a genuine smile flicker across Eda’s face before forcing her expression back to a disgruntled scowl. Once Luz had released her, Eda uncorked the nearest bottle and held it out to Luz.

“Here you go, kid. Hopefully two will be enough.” Luz downed the bottle eagerly, and all eyes in the room were on her as she set the bottle gently on the floor. There were a few tense seconds, then a puff of feathers, and Luz Noceda, bona fide human, stood before then. Luz held her hands out in front of her face, then looked herself up and down.

“It worked!” Luz jumped up and down, wincing slightly as she landed on her bad leg (Amity felt an uncomfortable pang of guilt at that, even after what Luz had told her earlier) and wrapped Eda in another embrace. “Thank you, Eda!” This time Eda didn’t attempt to hide her smile, and after a moment held Luz at arm’s length, checking her over.

“No extra feathers, wings…you seem to be alright. Good.” Eda sounded relieved, and Amity let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. As if on cue, Luz turned around and ran towards Amity, giving her a hug so enthusiastic that it lifted her into the air. Amity had forgotten just how strong the human was, even in her regular form.

The next few hours were a bit of a blur. There were plenty of hugs, and Eda whipped them up a delicious lunch in celebration, which was mostly consumed by King, who said he needed the calories after fighting with Tibbles after running into him again at the day market. Lilith came down at one point to see how Luz was doing, and offered an awkward but seemingly sincere congratulations that Luz had returned to her normal form. Aside from some brief sidebars with King, Luz didn’t leave Amity’s side the entire time. Amity had hoped that now that Luz was a human again, she would be less flustered by her touches. No such luck. Every time Luz took her hand or draped an arm over her shoulders, Amity felt like she was short circuiting. Even so, she wasn’t about to complain about it.

As the shadows grew longer and the excitement died down, Amity began to feel dread pooling in her stomach. This dread turned to full-on anxiety when Eda looked outside, then over to Amity.

“It’s getting late. Your parents want you back soon, I assume?” Eda’s tone was nonchalant, but the suggestion was enough to make Amity’s blood run cold. She was not looking forward to the ‘discussion’ her mother had hinted at. Even so, there was no use in delaying the inevitable. Amity sighed, defeated.

“I suppose so.” Amity said. Luz pouted, but offered no words of protest. Instead, she reached out for Amity’s hand and gave her a gentle squeeze, which Amity returned with a smile.

“I’ll give you a ride home, then.” Eda said, walking over to where her staff was leaned up against the door. Luz was quiet as she helped Amity pack up her things, and when Eda gestured for Amity to sit on her staff, Luz sat next to her like it was foregone conclusion that she would be joining them for the ride. Amity was grateful for her company, and for her grounding touch as they sped through the air.

It didn’t take them long to reach the Blight manor, its foreboding spires and iron-wrought gate harsh outlines against the setting sun. As Amity slid off of Eda’s staff, Luz caught her hand.

“Hey. Thanks for staying with me this weekend.” Luz said gently, and the emotion in her voice and soft look in her eyes left Amity at a loss for words.

“I…” Amity began, unable to cobble the right words together. Whatever she had been about to say was interrupted by the unmistakable creaking of the front door. She whipped her head around to see the ornate wooden door beginning to open, and her words died in her throat.

“I have to go.” Amity tore her hand free from Luz’s grasp and bolted for the door, hoping to get inside before her parents could see who she had been talking to. She reached the front steps just as the imposing figure of Odalia Blight was fully illuminated in the dim light of the evening, door wide open. Amity’s mother regarded her coldly, as if she were a particularly stubborn stain on the carpet.

“You’ve been out.” It wasn’t an accusation, just a statement of fact, but it was enough to send a jolt of panic through Amity. She forced herself to maintain a neutral expression and tone of voice. Years of practice helped.

“I was out with Boscha and Skara.” It was a lie that she would be unable to substantiate in any way—bold and foolish to make in the face of her mother. Odalia narrowed her eyes slightly, and looked over Amity’s shoulder. Amity turned around, relief washing over her when she saw that Luz and Eda were nowhere to be found.

“Hm.” Odalia held out her hand, gesturing for Amity to come inside. “We must talk.”

The Blight manor was meant to be intimidating, inside and out. Its cavernous ceilings, dark wood floors, and ostentatious trophies and decorations in every room were enough to make even royalty feel insignificant. All royalty, of course, except for the elder Blights. The parlor was a favorite for interrogations, reprimands, and ‘discussions’, so Amity was unsurprised to find herself led there and directed towards a small wooden stool. Her father, Alador, was already waiting there, sat in an overstuffed leather armchair that looked more like a throne. Odalia took a seat next to him. They both had the same look on their face, the look of an animal stalking their prey, waiting for them to make a wrong move. Amity gulped.

“How was your trip?” She offered, hoping against hope that she could distract them.

“Dreadful.” Alador said, in a tone that warranted no further discussion. No such luck with distraction, then.

“You were out late after school this Friday.” Odalia said. A neutral statement of fact, but Amity knew her mother was waiting for her to explain herself.

“Yes, mother. I was helping coach the grudgby team.” It was the first lie that came to Amity’s mind, and the moment Odalia leaned forward and her frown deepened, Amity knew that she had been caught. Curiously, her mother decided not to comment on it yet.

“Next time, you will inform us.” There was no room for argument. Amity nodded, hoping that she would be able to end the conversation early with compliance.

“Yes, of course, mother.” Any hopes Amity had were dashed when Odalia fixed Amity with a long, hard look.

“I’ve heard unpleasant rumors from Boscha’s parents lately.” Odalia said coldly. “I’ve heard that you’ve been spending an awful lot of time with that filthy human, the owl lady’s pet.” Amity’s heart pounded in her chest, and she fought to maintain a neutral expression as Odalia and Alador looked at her closely. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” The first question of the night.

“No, mother.” Amity said. It was the only answer that would protect her, but she had a dull suspicion that Odalia wouldn’t believe her. This suspicion was confirmed when Odalia sighed disappointedly.

“You insist on making this hard for us. Very well. Dear?” Odalia turned to Alador, who drew a small circle in the air. Small strings of purple light that Amity knew all too well snaked out of his fingertips and wrapped around Amity’s throat. She felt a burning sensation on her skin as the truth spell began to take hold. “You know how it is, Amity. Yes or no answers only, or it will only be more difficult for you.” Odalia instructed, sounding almost bored. Amity nodded, afraid to speak.

“Have you been spending time with the human lately?” Odalia asked, and immediately Amity felt the strings around her neck flare white-hot, encouraging her to answer.

“Yes.” Amity choked out, and the heat died down as quickly as it had arrived, though some of the burning sensation still remained. Odalia sighed, though she didn’t seem surprised.

“Were you with the human this Friday night?” This question caused the strings to burn once more, and Amity tried to wait this time, to give herself a chance to resist. But it was no use—the painful heat was too much for her to take.

“Yes.” Amity said, defeated. Odalia nodded, and the strings unwound from around Amity’s neck before fading into nothingness.

“You would do wisely to be honest with us, Amity.” Alador said. There was no hint of pity or remorse in his tone.

“Yes, father.” Amity said, voice hoarse.

“You will not be spending any more time around this human. She is clearly a bad influence on you.” Odalia said, and Amity’s heart sank.

“But—” All words of protest died in her throat when Alador raised his hand, and Amity reflexively reached up to hold her throat.

“It would be a shame if any misfortune were to befall her.” Odalia said slowly, making sure Amity understood every word, and their sinister implications. Amity closed her mouth and nodded. Odalia smiled, though there was no trace of warmth on her face.

“Good. Off to your room.” And with that, the conversation was over. Amity didn’t need to be told twice to leave. The moment Odalia finished speaking, Amity stood and hurried towards the staircase. Once she made it to her room, she sank onto her bed, a cold, empty feeling in her chest as she pondered over what she would do. It didn’t take long for her to reach the only logical conclusion. Amity would have to stay away from Luz, for her own good. She wasn’t going to let her foolish emotions hurt Luz again. Amity groaned, burying her face in her hands. She was not looking forward to school tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary for those who skipped to the end:  
> Odalia and Alador ask Amity why she stayed late after school on Friday. Amity lies, and they can tell. Alador uses a truth spell on Amity that wraps strings of light around her throat. These strings cause a burning feeling that's intensified when a question is asked until Amity answers truthfully. Alador and Odalia learn that Amity has been spending time with Luz lately, and that she was with Luz on Friday. They release her from the truth spell and forbid Amity from seeing Luz, vaguely threatening that something bad will happen to Luz if Amity keeps spending time with her. Amity goes to her room and decides that, to protect Luz, she'll have to stay away from her.
> 
> Summary's over! Now, to regular author's notes.  
> Hey, everyone! Been a little while, huh? I got busy and lost some motivation to write, but I'm back at it again. I don't know how regular updates will be, but I have no plans of abandoning this story, even if it takes me a while to get to the conclusion. Thanks as usual for all your lovely support and feedback! It brings me a lot of joy to see that people are liking this story. Don't forget to leave some sweet, sweet comments--I love reading each and every one. Thanks very much for reading!


	9. For Your Own Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity avoids Luz. It goes about as well as you'd expect.

Amity knew that it was going to be difficult to stay away from Luz, but she didn’t realize just _how_ difficult.

It was bad enough waking up the morning after her talk with her mother to several cheerful messages from Luz on her scroll, messages Amity used all of her willpower to leave without a response. Of course, that didn’t stop Amity from scanning through them to make sure that Luz was okay. It seemed that the Owl House crew still wasn’t certain how to extract the curse, and weren’t sure to what degree the curse would be affected by the abnormal way Luz had received it and the fact that Luz was a human. However, the potions seemed be enough to subdue it for now, and they were confident enough to send Luz back to Hexside for the week. Amity was, of course, relieved that Luz would be able to return to some semblance of normal fairly quickly. However, she was not looking forward to avoiding Luz at school.

Amity had gone over every scenario she could possibly think of in her head. She knew that she owed Luz some sort of explanation, but she also knew that if she told Luz the truth, the human would insist that she wasn’t afraid of Amity’s parents. But Amity knew that Luz _should_ be afraid of the elder Blights—they were cruel, vindictive, determined, and most importantly, had eyes and ears everywhere. Amity couldn’t allow herself to be swayed by Luz’s irrational optimism, not when Luz’s safety was at stake. No, the best bet was to avoid Luz outright and hope the human took the hint and stayed away. Of course, that hadn’t worked out too well the first time, but maybe Luz would eventually get tired of trying.

The unsettling lead ball feeling returned to Amity’s stomach as she approached Hexside. She had already decided that she would take a side door in to avoid seeing Luz for as long as possible, but even so, she had a close call while skirting around the front of the school. She had spotted Luz, Willow, and Gus waiting at the front steps (waiting for her, she realized with a pang of guilt), chatting amiably. Even from afar, it was clear that something was off about Luz. Normally, the human was incredibly expressive in her body language, prone to accidentally smacking passersby with how much she used her hands to talk. Now, she was oddly still. Everything about her stance screamed anxiety, and Amity thought, for a brief moment, that she should go over and comfort her. After a moment of internal struggle, Amity shook her head and kept walking for the side door, convincing herself that it was the right thing to do. Besides, it wasn’t like Luz was all alone. She had Gus and Willow. She didn’t need Amity.

Once she was actually inside Hexside, it was much easier to avoid Luz. Every time she thought she heard or saw the human in the crowd, she turned around and found an alternate route to her destination. Frustrating? Yes. But worth it? Also yes. Unfortunately, this strategy didn’t work when it came to their shared Abomination class. Amity arrived mere moments before the class was about to start, having taken every detour possible to avoid running into Luz. Her plan was to make a beeline towards the back of the classroom to sit as far away as possible from Luz, who would almost certainly take their usual spot at the very front.

Sure enough, the moment Amity entered the classroom, she spotted Luz sitting at their table. She gave Amity a cheerful wave, and Amity fought to keep from smiling back. She wished that she hadn’t looked at all, because even the wave was enough to start some stray butterflies fluttering in her stomach. Instead, she turned away and walked past Luz, all the way to the back of the classroom, as far away from Luz as possible. She refused to look at Luz, not wanting to acknowledge her in any way (she rationalized that it would make it easier for both of them). Unfortunately, she hadn’t considered just how stubborn Luz could be.

About halfway through the class, while the teacher was scribbling away at the chalkboard, Amity felt something brush against her elbow. She looked over to see a paper airplane nestled next to her on her desk. Amity had a suspicion that only one person would have the experience to throw the airplane with such accuracy, and be so bold as to do so during class. Her suspicion was confirmed when she opened the note to see Luz’s familiar scrawl.

_“Hey Amity,_

_?_

_\- Luz”_

Amity almost chuckled. Almost. She looked to the front of the room to see Luz twisted around to look at her, a confused and almost hurt expression on her face. Amity considered crumpling up the paper and throwing it away, but stopped herself. That was far too cruel. Luz deserved some sort of explanation. After thinking for a few moments, Amity erased Luz’s message and wrote one of her own. Simple, yet effective.

_“I can’t be around you anymore.”_

Amity folded the paper back into an airplane and drew a quick circle of magic to send it soaring towards the front of the room. Before Luz could open it, Amity returned her attention to her notes, hoping to avoid seeing the aftermath of her note. Even though she knew this was for Luz’s own good, she couldn’t trust herself to remain resolute if she saw Luz upset. When class ended, she hurried out of the room, hoping to avoid meeting Luz’s eyes. It turned out that she didn’t have to worry about that. Luz didn’t look at her at all.

When lunch rolled around, Amity once again sat as far away from Luz as possible. Unfortunately, that also meant sitting far away from Willow and Gus as well. And, due to her falling out with Boscha over their ill-fated grudgby match, which meant that for the first time in her short life, Amity Blight was sitting alone. She tried to plaster on a disinterested expression, sneering at anyone who gave her a second glance, but her heart wasn’t in it. Unlike in Abominations class, Luz didn’t make an effort to try and talk to Amity, or communicate with her in any way. Willow and Gus shot Amity confused looks from afar, but Luz was determinedly not looking at her. Amity suppose that Luz’s avoidance was good. It would be easier on the both of them if they didn’t try to talk to each other.

That day when Amity arrived home, she went straight to her room and cried. It was selfish of her to feel bad, she knew—she was the one avoiding Luz, after all. But Amity also knew that she had to stay away, for Luz’s sake. No matter how much it hurt.

The following day, it was easier to avoid Luz. Luz seemed to have gotten the message and was avoiding Amity now. The human wouldn’t even make eye contact with her. Every time Amity spotted Luz, she looked so anxious and sad that Amity couldn’t help but want to go and comfort her, but she knew that she couldn’t. The lead ball in Amity’s stomach had only grown heavier, and while she managed to keep her tears in when she returned home, that didn’t lessen the feeling of sadness rising up within her.

Day three was when Willow cornered her. It was right after school let out, after another painfully long day without any interaction with Luz, when Willow stormed up to Amity, a hard look in her eyes. She grabbed Amity’s arm with a bit too much force and dragged her towards a secluded area of the school, her determined stride and tight-lipped frown leaving no room for discussion. Once they had abandoned the rest of the student population, Willow let Amity go and crossed her arms, fixing Amity with a stern glare.

“What’s been going on with you?” Willow asked, anger evident in her tone.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Amity tried to keep her voice cool and dispassionate, but the slight tremble in it might have given her away. Willow pinched her forehead in frustration, sighing.

“You’re going to make me spell it out for you? Fine. You’ve been avoiding us all week.” Willow paused for a moment before she continued. “Actually, scratch that. You’ve been avoiding _Luz_ all week. She’s been miserable.” Amity felt the lead ball in her stomach sink deeper and deeper. Hearing Willow lay it out so plainly was starting to make her feel even more guilty, even though she knew she was doing the right thing. Willow must have seen the conflicted look on Amity’s face, because her expression softened.

“What happened when you went to see her on Friday?” Willow asked, more gently than before. Amity raised an eyebrow, surprised.

“Did…did Luz not tell you?” That didn’t make sense. Luz and Amity were close, but Gus and Willow were arguably much warmer and more supportive friends. Their sweetness was as comforting as it was infuriating, and Luz needed that now more than ever. The idea that she hadn’t told Gus and Willow about the curse was completely ludicrous. Still, Willow shook her head, expression pained.

“No. She hasn’t told us anything. And every time I try to bring it up, she gets all weird. And her eyes…” Willow trailed off before shaking her head. “Never mind that, I’m just worried about her.” The mention of Luz’s eyes sent a chill down Amity’s spine.

“Her eyes what? What is it?” Amity tried and failed to keep the urgency out of her voice.

“It’s no big deal, I’m probably just seeing things. But it seemed like whenever we try to talk about you, or what happened, her eyes go dark for a moment. Almost like they turn completely black.” Willow sounded like she was trying hard to convince herself that it was nothing, but she didn’t sound very confient. “Maybe it’s some weird human thing. Or maybe it’s some new spell from Eda, or something. We did find a couple of owl feathers on her cowl today, but I thought they were just left over from Beastkeeping class.” Willow’s words made panic rise in Amity’s chest.

“If Luz hasn’t told you what happened to her, I don’t feel like I can either.” Amity began, choosing her words carefully. “But can you please keep an eye on her for me? And make sure she’s okay.” Willow frowned, looking pensive.

“You know, you could keep an eye on her yourself if you stopped avoiding her.” Ouch. Willow was pulling no punches, but Amity felt like she deserved that one.

“Fair point. But…I can’t.” Amity’s words made Willow frown again, though this time, she looked more sad than thoughtful.

“Fine. Gus and I will support Luz through whatever she’s going through, because that’s what friends do.” That last pointed comment stung, but once again, Amity felt like she deserved it, even though she knew she was doing the right thing. Willow sighed again, then turned to walk away from Amity. It seemed that the confrontation was over. Willow took a few paces away, then turned back to Amity, a pained expression on her face.

“Amity. Don’t do to Luz what you did to me. She doesn’t deserve that.” Willow’s statement had the same effect on Amity as a punch to the gut. Amity found herself reeling, and by the time she regained her composure, Willow was gone.

Willow’s words had sowed seeds of doubt inside Amity’s mind, but she returned to school the next day still determined to avoid Luz. Yes, she shouldn’t have avoided Willow all those years ago, but this was different! Luz was a human living with a known criminal—there was a lot more that the Blight parents could do to hurt her than they could Willow. Additionally, Luz didn’t need any more trouble in her life, especially now that she was cursed. No, it was best to avoid Luz altogether.

Of course, it was much easier to keep that mindset when Amity was sitting alone in her dark room in the Blight manor, instead of at lunch, alone, poking disinterestedly at her food. Amity was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice a particularly unwelcome presence approach her table.

“Hey.” The familiar, sarcastic drawl had Amity clenching her fists. “Sitting all alone, huh? I knew your social life was going down the drain, but I didn’t realize it would be this bad.”

“What do you want, Boscha?” Amity tried to inject her voice with every ounce of venom possible as she fixed her former friend with an icy glare. Boscha seemed unperturbed, flashing Amity a smug smile.

“Oh, nothing. Just wanted to gloat, I guess,” Boscha said teasingly. Her eyes flicked over to where Luz, Willow and Gus were sitting, and her grin became a bit more devilish. “I see you’re not sitting with the other zeroes anymore. Did you finally come to your senses and realize what a loser the human is?” Amity could feel her blood boil. Gone were the days where she allowed Boscha to casually insult her friends.

“You’re just jealous because Luz is a better friend than you ever were.” Amity didn’t feel the need to go easy on Boscha—years of ‘friendship’ with the witch had taught her that the witch had a mean streak a mile wide. Boscha’s eyes narrowed, and Amity thought she saw her smug expression slip for a moment.

“That’s pretty rude of you, Blight. Is someone a little sensitive about the human?” Amity shrugged, trying to maintain an air of aloofness.

“I wouldn’t call it rude, just the truth. No, it would be rude to say that you’re vindictive and cruel, because you’re like that you’ll probably never have a real friend in your life,” Amity said nonchalantly, giving Boscha a smirk of her own. It scared Amity sometimes how easily she could slip back into being the petty witch she had been before she met Luz, but in this case she felt it was well deserved. She knew she had won when Boscha frowned, all pretense of superiority vanishing.

“Oh, it is on, Blight,” Boscha hissed, taking a step back. Amity narrowed her eyes, a silent challenge.

“Yeah? Do your worst.” Making Boscha mad was probably a terrible idea, but Amity didn’t care. If Boscha hadn’t blabbed to her parents about Amity spending time with Luz, then Amity wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. For a moment, Boscha had the decency to look scared. Then, a wicked grin spread across her face.

“I will. But not to you.” With that, Boscha turned and sauntered away, giving Amity a mocking wave goodbye. Amity didn’t have to wait long to see what Boscha was talking about. When the grudgby captain parked herself at Luz, Gus, and Willow’s table, Amity felt her blood run cold.

“Oh no…” She said under her breath, watching Luz’s face fall as Boscha began to talk. Amity was too far away to hear what Boscha was saying, but Luz’s expression was enough to tell her that it was nothing good. She felt the lead ball in her stomach grow even heavier as Boscha pointed towards Amity, and for the first time in days, Luz met Amity’s eyes. The wounded expression on Luz’s face spoke volumes, and for a split second, Amity thought she saw what Willow was talking about; even from afar, it looked like Luz’s eyes flickered to be completely black, if only for a brief moment.

Amity decided then that parents be damned, she had to go over and clear things up. She didn’t know what Boscha was saying, but she wasn’t about to let her hurt Luz anymore. But it seemed that Amity was too late. As she got to her feet, she saw Luz do the same and bolt away with surprising speed as Willow and Gus called out after her. Amity ran towards the table just as the two of them were getting up to follow Luz.

“What did she say?” Amity said, urgency in her tone.

“Nothing that wasn’t true.” Boscha tossed the words over her shoulder as she headed back to her cronies. Amity felt blood roar in her ears, and took a few steps toward Boscha, hands balled into fists. Before Amity could get far, Willow’s hand on her shoulder brought her back to reality.

“We have to find Luz. You need to talk to her.” Willow said, her voice hard. Amity nodded resolutely.

“You’re right. I…” Amity trailed off as she looked in the direction where Luz ran off. Floating gently on the wind was a single, brown feather. “Oh no.” No sooner had the words left her mouth than a loud roar pierced the air.

“Luz!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Thanks for being patient with my sporadic updating schedule. And thanks for all the support for this story! The fact that it's hit 500 kudos is completely mind boggling to me. Thanks y'all so very much! Don't forget to leave those sweet sweet comments--I love reading each and every one! Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you next chapter.


	10. A Necessary Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz, Amity, Willow, and Gus have an important discussion.

Amity ran like a witch possessed, heart pounding in her ears and breath coming in short gasps. She had no idea what her plan was, but she knew that she had to get to Luz as fast as possible. Willow and Gus ran with her, but they weren’t trained grudgby athletes, and quickly fell behind as Amity picked up the pace.

Even with the benefit of highly sensitive witch ears, it wasn’t entirely clear where the roar had come from. Despite how fast Amity could run, Luz’s beast form was faster, and she had the entirety of campus and the sky to hide in.

Amity thought that it would be difficult for a large owl beast to hide, but it seemed that she was wrong. She checked all the usual locations she would have expected Luz to be in—the beastkeeping stables, the side stairs where the four of them sat on occasion, the front of the school—and yet there was no sign of her. Amity paused to catch her breath by the grudgby stadium, despair beginning to take root within her as her shoulders slumped. She didn’t have any way of contacting Eda, and she certainly couldn’t ask Principal Bump for help. With all the trouble Luz got into, he was more likely to expel her than he was to actually lend a hand.

Amity straightened up. She couldn’t give up, not when she, Willow, and Gus were the only people who could keep Luz from getting in trouble, or worse, getting hurt. She narrowed her eyes, scanning her surroundings with renewed resolve. As she looked, she heard a faint yet heartbreakingly familiar whimpering sound coming from the grudgby stands. Amity immediately whipped her head around to see a faint flicker of movement from beneath the bleachers. Amity immediately set off towards them, picking up the pace when she heard the whimpering growing louder.

When Amity reached the edges of the stands and peered underneath, she was met with a heart-wrenching sight. As she had suspected, Luz was in full owl beast form, blackened out eyes and all. As she watched, Luz paced back and forth in a frenzy. She paused briefly to hold up her paws to her face, dark eyes darting over them as if there was something written there that only she could see. After a moment of scrutiny, Luz let out a pained wail, bringing up those same paws to clamp down over her head and ears. She began pawing at her face, and her movements were so rough that Amity was worried she was going to hurt herself.

“Luz, stop!” Amity knew that she should have made more of an effort to make her voice calm, but she couldn’t help it. Worry pulsed through her, and she couldn’t stand to see Luz in such anguish. Unfortunately, her sharp tone didn’t do much to ease Luz’s nerves. Luz’s paws tore away from her face as she looked over towards Amity, letting out a startled squawk that quickly turned to frantic whimpers as she began moving backwards, feathers standing on end in alarm. Amity felt the air leave her lungs as though she had been punched in the gut. Of course Luz would have such an adverse reaction to her—she probably remembered what Amity had done to her last time she was in this state. Amity raised her arms in what she hoped was a pacifying gesture, mind racing as she tried to think of what she could do to ease Luz’s nerves. Just as Amity was beginning to formulate her next words, she was interrupted by the sound of footsteps.

“Amity! What…” Willow and Gus seemed to have caught up with her, and Gus’s question trailed off as he squinted into the darkness. “What is that?” To his credit, he sounded more perplexed than scared. Willow was even more nonplused than him.

“It looks like someone’s beastkeeping project escaped.” Willow sounded sympathetic, but her voice quickly hardened as she took Amity’s arm in a surprisingly firm grip. “Come on, Amity. We have to find Luz.” Amity pulled her arm free and gave Willow and Gus a serious look.

“No, Willow. That _is_ Luz.” Amity could see the kaleidoscope of emotions the two friends shifted through—shock, disbelief, and then, begrudging realization.

“What—how—” Gus regained his cognitive faculties first, though he still didn’t seem capable of much more than disjointed questions. Amity couldn’t blame him.

“She’s cursed. When she’s in this form everything is a lot brighter and louder, so keep your voices down.” Amity watched them carefully, trying to gauge their reactions. She wasn’t surprised to see their expressions settle somewhere between sympathy and sadness.

“Oh, Luz…Is this what you didn’t want to tell us?” Willow asked gently, taking a few tentative steps forward. Luz continued to back away, whimpering quietly. “Can she understand us?” Willow whispered to Amity, who nodded in reply. Willow decided to redouble her efforts taking another cautious step. “It’s okay, Luz. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re here to help.” Luz began to retreat again as Willow moved forward, though her whimpering became less pronounced.

“We’ll help you out, Luz! I’m sure it’s not so bad, being big and fluffy. Actually—” Gus paused briefly, drawing a circle in the air, “—I think I pull it off pretty well.” In a puff of sparks, Gus disappeared, replaced with an illusion version of his head on the body of an owl. He looked absolutely ridiculous, and despite the tenseness of the situation, Amity couldn’t help but crack a smile. Owl-body Gus looked down at himself, sighing. “I guess it looked better in my head.”

Amity heard a trilling sound from Luz and turned to see that she seemed to be laughing. Her chuckles sounded a little watery, and when Amity looked closer, she saw that tears were streaming from Luz’s eyes. The revelation shouldn’t have been surprising, but it sent a pained jolt through Amity regardless. She took another step forward, the movement almost involuntary.

The moment Amity moved forward, Luz’s eyes shot back over to her, and she squawked again, frantically scrabbling backwards until there was a loud _clang_ as she hit the metal bars underneath the bleachers. The noise seemed to only send Luz further into a spiral of panic, and her wails became more panicked as she frantically twisted around, looking for a way to escape. Before Amity could even begin to think of what to do, a wall of vines sprouted up, covering every Luz-sized gap in the bleacher’s metal webbing. Amity looked over at Willow to see the remnants of a plant magic circle dissolving in the air.

“Sorry, Luz, but it’s probably not safe for you to be out there. Not like this.” Willow said apologetically. She paused, then gave Luz another tentative smile.

“We don’t want to hurt you. We just want to help.” When Luz turned back to face Willow, a little bit of the panic seemed to have drained from her posture. Willow took a few more steps forward, and when Luz didn’t do much more than whimper, she finally closed the gap and gently put a hand on Luz’s arm. Luz visibly relaxed into the gesture, and Amity was struck by the memory of Luz saying how physical contact grounded her.

Seemingly emboldened by Luz’s reaction to Willow, Gus ran forward and wrapped Luz’s other arm in a hug. Luz made a chuckling sound, and leaned down to gently headbutt Gus, who laughed in response. Amity smiled, some of the tension easing from her shoulders. Good. It looked like Luz was going to be okay. A twinge of doubt began to pull at the corners of her mind, telling her that she should probably leave. But even though Luz seemed to have calmed down, Amity didn’t want to leave her side until it was certain she would be alright. Amity gulped and took a few steps forward.

The reaction was immediate. Luz stiffened, and began clambering backwards again, rearing up to get as far away from Amity as possible, tugging her arms from Gus and Willow’s grasps. When it became obvious that she couldn’t move any farther, Luz curled in on herself, clamping her paws over her eyes once more, whining plaintively.

“What’s wrong, Luz?” Gus asked, looking from her to Amity with confusion. Willow had already fixed Amity with a hard look, arms crossed. Amity felt a lump rise in her throat, and tears sprung to the corner of her eyes.

“I…the first time Luz transformed like this, I…” Amity almost couldn’t bring herself to say it, and cleared her throat uncomfortably, trying to work up her courage. “…I hurt her. On accident, of course.” Amity wiped her eyes. She wanted to look away, but forced herself to look at Luz. She owed her that much. “That’s probably why she doesn’t want me to come closer.”

At these words, Luz pulled her paws down from her eyes. Fresh tears were falling there, too, but as Amity watched, Luz shook her head emphatically. Amity was thoroughly perplexed.

“No? That’s not why?” Amity asked, a little desperately. Willow sighed, clearly frustrated.

“Considering how you’ve been treating her, it’s not very surprising that Luz doesn’t want to be around you. Especially after what Boscha said.” Willow’s words were cold, and Amity’s heart sank when she saw Luz flinch.

“What did Boscha say?” Amity knew that Boscha could be cruel, even to her friends. Still, Luz was generally unflappable. Amity couldn’t imagine what Boscha could have said that would have affected her so much. Willow shot Luz a hesitant look before speaking again.

“She was talking about how it wasn’t very surprising that you stopped talking to Luz, considering how popular and talented you were, and that Luz should feel lucky that you bothered to ‘stoop to her level’ for as long as you did.” Amity clenched her fists. Her anger blazed white hot and coursed through her veins, and as Amity tried to calm herself down, she couldn’t help but think back to her and Luz’s conversation before Luz had transformed, the one where Luz had thanked Amity for being her friend. Looking at Luz now, she saw the anguish that had been trapped under the surface, the deep sadness that came with being a loner and outcast in her own world, and the sorrow at having seemingly lost a friend because of the same shallow reasons that made her so isolated back in the human world. _A friend lost_ , Amity thought grimly, _at the time she needed a friend the most._

Amity took a shaky breath, trying to calm her raging emotions.

“Luz.” Amity spoke deliberately and calmly, trying to infuse her voice with as much seriousness as possible. Luz looked at her, gaze filled with trepidation. “Boscha was wrong. You’re a good friend, the best friend I’ve ever had, and you’re one of the best people I know.” Amity took a deep breath. She didn’t want to tell Luz the whole truth at this exact moment, but she knew that she couldn’t keep avoiding Luz. In trying to protect her, she had only ended up hurting the both of them. It was high time that Amity start being a good friend back to Luz—the kind of friend that Luz deserved.

“I can’t explain right now why I did what I did, but I’m sorry. I was weak, and I was scared, and I never wanted to hurt you, but I did and I can’t excuse that.” Amity’s vision became blurry as tears welled up in her eyes again. She wiped them away angrily. “And if you want me to leave, that’s okay. But I promise I’m going to be better. I won’t hurt you again.” Amity’s voice shook, and she hoped that her dedication was clear in her words. Luz had fixed her with an inscrutable, wide-eyed stare, and Amity waited a few moments to see her reaction. When Luz remained stock-still, Amity sighed and turned to leave.

“I…I’ll go.” Amity said dejectedly, blinking away fresh tears. However, before she could take a single step, she heard a rustle of feathers from behind. When she looked back, she saw that Luz had moved towards her, closing half of the distance between them. Luz’s posture was still guarded, nervous, but her expression seemed almost hopeful. Amity swallowed thickly and took a tentative step towards her. For the first time, Luz didn’t move backwards. She didn’t move at all, and remained silent and still as Amity took a few more cautious steps towards her.

Amity stopped when she was immediately in front of Luz, and spread her arms in an awkward gesture.

“Um…can I…do you want…” Amity wasn’t sure how exactly to ask the human if she wanted a hug. Curse her dismal lack of knowledge on human comfort customs. Luz’s face broke into a smile, and quick as a flash, she wrapped Amity up in a soft, warm hug. Amity sighed, letting herself melt into Luz’s downy feathers and the sound of Luz’s low, contented rumblings. They were going to be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back with another update! I sure do like ending chapters on hugs. Thanks to everyone for your lovely support of this story, it's still so mind blowing to me! Thanks so much for reading, and don't forget to leave those sweet sweet comments--I read and cherish every one! Thanks, everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by this lovely piece of art: https://artofkace.tumblr.com/post/629094387236896769/owl-cursed-luz-for-a-ko-fi-request-i
> 
> It's been quite a while since I've written anything and my schedule is mysterious. We'll see how frequently I update or how far I get, but hopefully it'll be a fun ride! Definitely starting out slow in the beginning, but we'll get there. Hit me up with some sweet sweet comments--I'm interested to hear what y'all think.


End file.
